Preparing Your Child for Surgery
Would you like some advice on how to prepare your child for surgery?If your child is scheduled for same day surgery or surgery that will require hospitalization, we want you to understand the process. Our pediatric healthcare professionals can provide information that will help you prepare your child for surgery.
Learn about those parts of surgery that may be most stressful for your child; the various ways to prepare your child – and his/her siblings – for the upcoming surgery; and the possible emotional reactions your child may express. Providing your child with support and reassurance will help you move through many of the natural concerns all parents experience during a child's illness.
Visiting the Komansky Center Before Admission
Your child has been scheduled for surgery. You want to tell him or her all about it, but you would like some professional help in explaining what will happen in the hospital.If your child is three years old or older, you and your child are invited to visit the hospital for a special orientation before your child is admitted. Our Child Life staff is dedicated to helping our patients and their families feel more comfortable about coming to the hospital for surgery. These professionals, who are trained in child development and special education, have put together programs – including pre-admission tours – to guide children through the surgical process before the day of surgery. With their help, when your child is admitted for surgery the surroundings will have become more familiar and less overwhelming.
Touring the Komansky Center for Children's Health
These pre-operative tours enable children – and their parents – to see and learn all about the hospital in a friendly, non-threatening way. The children can see and touch equipment and clothing they will encounter, such as gloves, surgical masks, an IV pole, a hospital gown. They will be able to "role play" with this equipment, using dolls as "patients."Next, children and their parents are taken on a tour of the hospital. Each step of the process will be explained in an age-appropriate manner for our patients. Although the children do not visit an operating room, they will visit the recovery room. The children will meet our friendly staff and familiarize themselves with every area they'll see from the moment they arrive on the day of their hospitalization. Both you and your child are encouraged to ask questions throughout the tour.
Parents of children under the age of three are invited to visit the Komansky Center for a tour without their child. Teenagers are also encouraged to take a pre-operative tour, which will be geared to their age group.
Make an Appointment to Tour the Hospital
Our pre-surgical tours are offered by appointment only. To make an appointment, please call (212) 746-3518. Once you have registered for a tour, you will be sent a letter reminding you when and where to meet our staff for the tour. You will also receive a valet parking voucher (there's valet parking at the main entrance outside 525 East 68th Street), and a bibliography of books that are appropriate for your child's age group and the kind of surgery he or she will be having.
