Play in Hospital - Through the Looking-Glass: Exploring Children and Young People’s Perspectives regarding their Interactions with Health Play Professionals
type: CreativeWork
description: Background: Children and young people are confronted and challenged, on many levels, by illness and hospitalisation. Child-focused anthropologists have described how children utilise play and imagination as tools to cope and make meaning of their illness experiences. Over time, research on the presence and use of play in hospitals has expanded, yet few studies have explored the role of Health Play Professionals (HPP) — healthcare professionals who advocate for children and use playful methods to improve communication with, and transform the lived experience of, children in hospitals. Purpose: This doctoral research explores the role of play in paediatric healthcare, focusing on children’s perspectives regarding their interactions with all members of the Play Team— Health Play Specialists (HPS) and Play Workers (PW). Rooted in clinical paediatrics, research, and medical anthropology, this study aims to amplify the voices of hospitalised children and explore the implications for paediatric clinical practice and healthcare professionals’ education. This dissertation draws on creative analogies — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass — to reframe the hospital experience to a child’s point of view. Methodology: The research questions — "How do children behave before, during, and after they interact with Health Play Professionals?" and "What do children have to say about these playful interactions?" — were addressed through child-focused hospital ethnography. This involved 274 hours of participant observation across various paediatric wards in a UK hospital, with children ranging from two-weeks to seventeen-years-old, as well as 14 play-based interviews with children aged three to seventeen. The sample included observations of approximately 446 children and young people, with in-depth analyses conducted on 46 of them to capture their perspectives. Key findings: The findings provide an overview of both playful and not-so-playful interactions, intro…
abstract: Background: Children and young people are confronted and challenged, on many levels, by illness and hospitalisation. Child-focused anthropologists have described how children utilise play and imagination as tools to cope and make meaning of their illness experiences. Over time, research on the presence and use of play in hospitals has expanded, yet few studies have explored the role of Health Play Professionals (HPP) — healthcare professionals who advocate for children and use playful methods to improve communication with, and transform the lived experience of, children in hospitals. Purpose: This doctoral research explores the role of play in paediatric healthcare, focusing on children’s perspectives regarding their interactions with all members of the Play Team— Health Play Specialists (HPS) and Play Workers (PW). Rooted in clinical paediatrics, research, and medical anthropology, this study aims to amplify the voices of hospitalised children and explore the implications for paediatric clinical practice and healthcare professionals’ education. This dissertation draws on creative analogies — Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass — to reframe the hospital experience to a child’s point of view. Methodology: The research questions — "How do children behave before, during, and after they interact with Health Play Professionals?" and "What do children have to say about these playful interactions?" — were addressed through child-focused hospital ethnography. This involved 274 hours of participant observation across various paediatric wards in a UK hospital, with children ranging from two-weeks to seventeen-years-old, as well as 14 play-based interviews with children aged three to seventeen. The sample included observations of approximately 446 children and young people, with in-depth analyses conducted on 46 of them to capture their perspectives. Key findings: The findings provide an overview of both playful and not-so-playful interactions, intro…
author: Pérez Duarte Mendiola, Paulina
keywords: Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Autonomy and Choice, Child healthcare, Child-centred Healthcare, Child-focused Hospital Ethnography, Children's Perspectives, Children's Rights, Children's Voices, Health Play Professionals, Health Play Specialists, Healthcare Professionals Training, Healthcare-related Trauma, Hospital Ethnography, Hospitalisation, Hospitalisation and illness experience, Material relationships, Meaning-making, Medical Anthropology, Mexico, Paediatrics, Participant Observation, Play in Hospital, Play in Paediatric Healthcare, Play Teams, Play Workers, Play-based interviews, Psychosocial Impact, Ripple Effect Framework, Sensory Experiences, Therapeutic Play, Toys, United Kingdom, Children and Young People
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/23e1d266-1953-4d85-aeef-b61dc678a739/download
license: http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved
date published: 2025-01-06
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:06Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.120304