Every fall, patients at the James and Connie Maynard Children’s Hospital at ECU Health Medical Center participate in a Halloween trick-or-treat event that makes their stay a bit less scary, and provides a much needed sense of community.
Team members from across ECU Health gathered to put on their Halloween best, giving kids a chance to peruse through booths depicting the books of Dr. Seuss, a box of crayons, or Shrek’s swamp. Games and goodies were on tap to give patients and their families a boost of Halloween cheer, and a different component of care than the kind they find in their hospital rooms.
Kenzie Hornsby, a Child Life intern at Maynard Children’s Hospital, said her team has been planning the event for months. A big part of making it happen is meeting patients where they are.
“We always want to make sure patients have what they need, whether that’s help getting down to the floor or certain accommodations they might require while they trick-or-treat,” Hornsby said. “This event happens thanks to collaboration and communication across so many different groups who want to make it fun for our patients.”
Child Life Specialists visit patients and families individually to see if they are interested in attending the trick-or-treat event. Patients who want to dress up can pick from a variety of costumes donated by the community.
Leo-Elijah Lampla, 10, has been a patient at Maynard Children’s Hospital for about two weeks. His mother, Daphlie Lampla, said he was admitted after he experienced breathing issues and felt generally unwell. She said since being admitted, Child Life team members have gone above and beyond to make their inpatient stay less stressful.
“They have decorated his room and it looks beautiful,” Daphlie Lampla said. “He loves basketball, and the (East Carolina University) basketball team came and signed a basketball for him.
“The care here has made a big difference. He loves using the tablet to listen to music. Everything makes the experience less anxious or stressful.”
She said seeing her son have the chance to enjoy trick-or-treating, like he would outside the hospital’s walls, was a welcomed moment of relief.
“We’ve been through a lot, so this is a really good change of pace,” Daphlie Lampla said. “It raises his spirit and mine too. It feels like we have been through the storm and we are almost there. There’s a light in the distance. That lifts us up.
The event is also fun for team members, who booked open slots to participate within two hours of their being posted. For team members in patient-facing roles like Taylor White, an ECU Health case management team leader masquerading as beloved Muppet Elmo from Sesame Street, the trick-or-treat event is an opportunity to interact with the community in a different way.
“I love events like this,” White said. “This is a way for us to give back to our patients, so it means the world to be able to see these kids and families who are going through so much be able to come in and do something fun, to take their minds off their hardships.”
Mindy Wallace, a human resources service consultant at ECU Health, dressed as Velma from Scooby-Doo with her team filling in the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang, agreed having a chance to meet patients where they are is exciting and important for team members across the system and reinforces the sense of duty to serve one another and the wider community of eastern North Carolina.
“We serve our team members, but to be able to see them interact with patients really makes me happy,” Wallace said. “In HR we empathize with our team members and really extend to them that mission to improve the health and wellbeing of eastern North Carolina. If we’re doing that for our teams, then they’re able to do that for our patients. This lets us see that happening firsthand.”
