Best Life: Peds Academy educating patients, teachers

ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire) - Thirty-two million kids in this country are living with a chronic illness.

Sixty thousand children will be admitted into the hospital with a traumatic brain injury.

Staying on top of schoolwork can be challenging, but it’s the one thing that gives them a sense of normalcy.

Now a first-of-its-kind program is helping sick kids stay in class and giving aspiring teachers a chance to learn as well.

Khloe Raines has always loved learning. “My favorite subject in school is math,” she said.

She excelled in sixth grade until a car crash left her with a traumatic brain injury.

“They were just trying to wake her up, see if she would blink her eyes at you on command, things like that,” said Khloe’s mom, Victoria Raines.

“I can’t remember my accident,” said Khloe.

After six weeks in the hospital, Khloe started to relearn what she lost thanks to a new program at Nemours Children’s Hospital.

“Khloe was a very high-achieving student in sixth grade in all honors classes. And now because of her injury, she’s working significantly below grade level,” said Becca Grysko, PhD, Special Education Teacher & School Liaison at Nemours Children’s Hospital.

A first in the country PedsAcademy brings together children who are hospitalized with teacher interns.

“Chronic illness creates a lot of stressors and/or barriers that can interfere with learning,” said Grysko, Ph.D.

These kids are at an increased risk for chronic absenteeism, performing below their peers with poor motivation and emotional issues.

“If there’s no communication between the hospital and the school … the school is not aware of the child’s needs, and they don’t know how to support that child,” said Grysko, Ph.D.

It also introduces aspiring teachers to the healthcare environment.

“I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to dip my toes into healthcare,” said Emma Farnen, a UCF Intern.

“I think it solidified the fact that I do want to work in a children’s hospital,” said Isabella Escandon, UCF Intern.

And because of their work, Khloe is now more prepared to go home and tackle 7th grade with confidence.

Nemours Children’s Hospital hopes to inspire other hospitals to do the same and offers a free toolkit on how to develop an internship program based on the PedsAcademy model.

You can download it for free on the Nemours.org website.

Contributors to this news report include: Marsha Lewis, Producer; Roque Correa, Editor.

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