The hospital is a scary, intimidating, and overwhelming place—especially for children. There are many unknown faces, spaces, and procedures for any child who is admitted to the hospital. In the midst of the last few years of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been even harder to make any child feel comfortable in the hospital setting. With the help of Sigma’s Rho Chapter executive board and the Family Center at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, my goal is to make some of the pediatric patients at Mott feel a little less scared and just a little more comfortable, one book at a time.
I stepped into the role of Student Leadership Intern for Rho Chapter in September 2021, not fully knowing what to expect from the position. However, I have been extremely blessed by all that this opportunity has to offer. In this role I serve as a liaison between the student population and the executive board for the chapter, relaying information back and forth and keeping students informed. I have also worked on a mentoring project, with the goal of developing a program that fits into one of Rho Chapter’s goals: supporting leadership, development, service, or scholarship.
I wanted my project to be a true testament to my greatest interests while also having a lasting impact. I have always had a heart for service, and I quickly determined that I wanted to focus my project on this facet of Rho Chapter’s goals. My love for pediatric nursing and the pediatric population played a role, too. These combined interests sparked the idea for a book drive!
I am an avid reader, and I love sitting down with a good book. Reading is a comforting activity for people of all ages, and there is something so special about sitting down with a child and reading to them or helping them learn to read. While reading a book is a simple and small activity, it can provide a little sense of comfort in a scary situation, helping pediatric patients feel less scared in a new and intimidating environment.
I witnessed the need for books firsthand during my clinical rotation this past semester in the pediatric ICU at Mott. Patients or their families would ask for a book, but we did not have what they were looking for on the unit. COVID-19 has also complicated the process of receiving donations to the hospital. Additionally, due to precautions and infection prevention right now, books cannot be reused between children. In one way, this makes giving pediatric patients a book a special gift because it becomes theirs forever; however, it simultaneously makes the hospital's book supply run out quickly. With this in mind, my goal for the book drive was to collect as many books as possible to build up the Family Center with an adequate supply—specifically baby board books and books for children ages five years and younger.
We collected books through direct donations at designated spaces in the University of Michigan School of Nursing as well as by having donors send their donations directly to Mott. In total, we donated over 65 books to the Family Center. These donations came at the perfect time—just a couple of weeks before March, which is National Reading Month in the United States. The Family Center was incredibly grateful for the wide variety of books donated. The Children’s & Women’s Project Manager, whom I was in contact with throughout the process of the book drive, even stated that she recently had patients ask her specifically for books that were among our donations.
It was such a joy to be able to donate books to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital and be a small part in bringing light to a child’s stay in the hospital. It is a privilege to be able to serve patients and their families in this small way, and these books will have a lasting impact on many patients to come. It is my hope that each pediatric patient that receives a book will feel a little less scared, a little more comfortable, and a little more at home during their stay, one book at a time.
Kailey Schmidt is an undergraduate nursing student at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, and a member of Sigma’s Rho Chapter.