Video games are often seen as a pastime for kids, but at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, video games do much more than help kids pass time.
Within the Children's Center Child Life Department, which is celebrating Child Life Month in March, there is a special program that combines patient healing and wellness with video games — the patient gaming program.
Led by Patient Gaming Technology Specialist Nicholas Edwards, the program integrates gaming into patient care, using technology play as a way to normalize hospitalization, connecting patients with things they love to do at home. The immersive nature of video games helps patients focus a bit less on the pain and discomfort from treatment or medication. This can also include equipping patients who have limited mobility with adaptive gaming hardware to allow them to engage in gameplay comfortably and independently.
The program has more than 150 gaming consoles and 17 iPads available for use in clinical settings around the Children's Center. Some of the technology available to patients includes augmented reality, virtual reality, PlayStation, Nintendo, Xbox, and PC and iPad platforms.
"When a child is admitted to the hospital, it takes them out of their daily routine and away from their hobbies and comforts at home. The patient gaming program lets kids be kids again, even while going through a stressful time," says Edwards.
The program is just one aspect of the Child Life Department, which plays a critical role in helping reduce the stress of medical experiences for pediatric patients and their families through interventions such as developmentally appropriate education and normalization through play.
