Solace on Video : Hospital Tries Tapes of Parent to Help Dry the Tears of Children When Mom or Dad Must Leave

Nurses at Children’s Hospital of Orange County must be proficient not only at taking temperatures and giving shots, but also at drying young eyes when Mom or Dad leaves to get some sleep or even a cup of coffee.

To lessen the trauma of young children separated from their parents during hospitalization, Santa Ana therapist Karyn M. Sandburg is making videotapes of mothers reading stories aloud to their children at Children’s Hospital.

Sandburg is studying the effects on children who watch the tapes when their mothers can’t be there. So far, the results have been encouraging.

“Some parents in the study have been at the hospital around the clock,” Sandburg said. “This has helped some of them to leave for a few hours, or even overnight. It does venture to the point where the child and parent can be separated, and that’s the goal.”

Fewer than 20 children and their parents are participating in the study, but Sandburg hopes to increase the number. Last week, Elizabeth Wrensch and her mom, Candace, made their tape.

“We have a real separation problem, and we’re trying to work on it,” said Candace Wrensch, looking down at 3-year-old Elizabeth in her hospital bed. “We don’t separate unless Dad’s here. The only time we were ever able to separate was when I had home nursing and she got used to the people who came in.”

Tiny Elizabeth begins to shake and becomes distraught when Wrensch leaves, even briefly. Born prematurely, Elizabeth spent her first year in the hospital and has been in and out since then, undergoing 30 surgeries. She was admitted again recently with a 107-degree fever.

“I was thinking, making the tape could be good because then I could go down to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee without her getting upset,” Wrensch, of Santa Ana, said.

Taking her place before a brightly colored backdrop and holding her daughter close, Wrensch read four children’s stories aloud while Sandburg’s husband, Richard, manned the video camera. Each story dealt with the theme of separation and reunion.

Between stories, Wrensch and other mothers in the study look directly at the camera and offer reassuring comments such as: “I love you,” and “I’ll be back soon.”

After completing the videotape, the two returned to Elizabeth’s hospital room and watched it together, with Elizabeth smiling tentatively as she saw herself on the screen.

Some children in the study have become quite fond of the tapes, with one boy trying to memorize all the words, Sandburg said.

Sandburg, who is doing the study for her dissertation in psychology at the Westwood-based California Graduate Institute, came up with the idea of the videotapes after using them in a similar fashion with her son. When the family of his neighborhood playmate planned to go away for five weeks one summer, she decided to make a videotape so her son could watch his friend each day.

The study is designed with subjects in three groups. Some children watch videotapes of their mothers reading the stories alone. Some, as Elizabeth, watch tapes of their mothers reading stories with themselves on the television screen as well. And a third group watches videotapes of a woman they’ve never met before reading the same stories.

The videotapes are played at least three times a day while the mother is away, even if other relatives are present.

Frank Carden, director of the health psychology department at Children’s Hospital, said the videos could have many benefits, including helping to make hospitalized children happier and freeing nurses to spend time doing things other than quieting children.

If the results of the study, expected in the fall, are positive, the hospital may make the videotapes a part of its recreation therapy, Carden said. Other hospitals might follow suit, he says.

“Obviously, we think it’s a good idea,” he said.