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Disney has a history of helping in hospitals
Going to the hospital can be a scary time for anyone, but especially for children. If it’s the child being taken for a hospital visit, and not just accompanying others to visit someone else, the experience becomes even more frightening. Kids can sense how upset the parents must be at the situation, which might only double their own fears.
Anything that might help lessen those fears and distract children from their upsetting time at a hospital, then, is fantastic. Kudos to Walt Disney Imagineering and Florida Hospital for Children for their recent opening of the Walt Disney Pavilion at Florida Hospital in Orlando.
The Sun Sentinel has all the details from the Pavilion’s opening day at the end of last month. The Pavilion is a new pediatric center/wing, one that functions essentially as a miniature play park within a hospital. All of the features of the Walt Disney Pavilion revolve around characters from four different Disney movies: “The Lion King,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Jungle Book,” and “Brother Bear.”
I was surprised to see that last film on the list. I didn’t realize it was that popular, but maybe it is with the latest generation. What I suspect is actually going on, however, is that each movie was chosen for its different setting.
Play rooms within the pavilion whisk children to the desert, the ocean, the jungle, or a dense forest. Even within individual and ER rooms children can select images from these and other areas (such as space) to display on the wall and transport them far away.
This is a Disney experience, however, so of course it doesn’t stop there. Costumed characters, or Disney cast members, wander the play rooms of the Pavilion to help make the kids’ experience that much more enjoyable. The cast members stay off the treatment floors, so that the children do not associate the characters with any pain or trauma they might experience.
Valets dressed up like ride operators from Disney World meet customers in the parking lot to help with their cars. The play rooms are filled with interactive games, from popping bubbles in Ariel’s Grotto to hopping into a virtual salmon run with Brother Bear.
Here’s where I think the experience, as those crafted by Disney do sometimes, might start to go a little far. Apparently hospital staff, not those brought in by Disney to populate the Pavilion but actual previously instated hospital staff, underwent special training to learn how to deliver the Disney experience at every Pavilion station.
I’m worried that Florida Hospital might get so caught up in providing an enjoyable experience for children that the most vital part of their visits—actual medical procedures—might fall by the wayside. Disney staff are employed at the hospital; let them handle the park experience. Actual hospital staff ought to focus on the real medical purpose of the children’s trip.
I might be overreacting a little bit here. Disney is renowned for its excellent customer service and for its fundamental understanding of how to fire a child’s imagination. It’s no wonder that a pediatric hospital would seek a Disney partnership and want some Disney training for its staff. After all, Disney provides business seminars for corporations, and I’m sure those sessions don’t involve pixie dust.
It remains to be seen whether or not Florida Hospital will provide the ultimate playtime or medical experience for kids, but anything that can help distract children from their worries in such a situation is a boon in my book.
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*(This image by NYCMarines is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
