Keanna Shrubsall is no longer stranger to London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) and Children’s Hospital.
The 17-year-old was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease called Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis at the age of six, and has been visiting the hospital regularly for 11 years now.
However, she’s taken the time at the hospital as an opportunity to create connections with staff from Youth CoRE, which stands for Youth Connect, Relate and Engage.
The initiative connects patients to help them feel like regular kids, despite their hospitalization.
‘’I’ve been dealing with this for a long time, and Youth Corps is really good at making you feel like you’re not at the hospital. When you’re at the hospital, you are upset because you feel like you want to go to school and see your friends. It’s good because they can just take your mind off of being here,’’ says Keanna Shrubsall.
‘’I was starting hemodialysis this summer and I was there Monday, Wednesday, Friday for four hours each time. And it’s really long and boring, but Youth CoRE is really good because I remember one time me and Deanna just started watching the first high school musical.’’
The program was created by LHSC’s Child and Youth Advisory Council (CYAC) after they identified a gap in services for patients ages 12-18. Many members have had either a personal patient experience or an experience through one of their siblings in the hospital.
‘’Everyone who’s part of the team has had experience of themselves or through siblings. When I was younger I had kidney cancer, which let me tap kidney transplant. Just being in the hospital experiencing this type of environment helps you to understand and connect with patients that are going through the same thing whether or not it’s the same condition,’’ says Diana Kassem, one of the members of Youth CoRE
She says activities with staff will vary from patient to patient.
‘’It depends on the patient. For example, a lot of people love to play video games. And video games kind of help you get out of your headspace for a bit. It’s is like the patient is kind of zoned in on that activity.’’
Keanna had been swallowing over 30 medications a day but has now switched to a g-tube, helping with the medications go directly through her stomach. She’s also been through PD dialysis and chemo dialysis.
Now, she is spending more time at home by doing home chemo dialysis.
‘’This happens through the bloodstream while I sleep. I sleep for nine and a half hours, which is amazing, because I can just do it while I sleep and then the day is free for myself.’’
‘’It was a great opportunity to jump on board and have someone talk to Kiana. Someone that has been through a similar journey,’’ says her mother Sara Shrubsall.
‘’Sometimes they just hang out as like peer-to-peer, other times they talk about things that they’ve gone through. So, it’s a great bridge between being a little kid and going into the adult world’’.
The Youth CoRE peer support program has recently been added to the Health Standards Organization’s (HSO) Leading Practices Library. The Leading Practices Library is a national platform where innovative, people-centered, and evidence-informed practices that have demonstrated positive change are recognized.
‘’We involve them in the design of the program. We involve them in the implementation. And then we involve them in understanding the evaluation of a program. It’s our patients who tell us, hey, we need to change the way we’re doing things,’’ says Tammy Quigley, System Innovation and Business Development Executive at LHSC.
‘’And that has really, from our children’s hospital perspective, highlighted the opportunity to support our staff. So, these aren’t just about patients, they’re also about our staff. Our virtual emergency department in the Children’s Hospital as well has been highlighted.’’
Now, Keanna is looking forward to finish her high school and start the Nursing program at Fanshawe College.
‘’I want to get into something with the medical industry because I feel like the hospital has taught me a lot. I think my idea of nursing came from here, especially at PMDU. They have really great nurses there.”
‘’I think that inspiration of how they have helped me has just made me feel like: Oh yeah, I want to go into nursing.’’
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