An inquiry into the educational services provided to children in hospitals

Abstract

The aim of this study is to give a clear picture of the educational services provided in the children's wards at St. Luke's Hospital, in local primary schools and in the homes of sick and/or chronically ill children. To obtain the necessary information, some case studies were followed up by conducting interviews and observations. In Chapter 1, a brief overview of what the dissertation is about is given. In Chapter 2, there is an explanation of what the literature says about this topic. Chapter 3 explains the methodology applied to obtain the relevant data for the topic being researched. Chapter 4 presents the results obtained through the methodology applied. In Chapter 5, the results obtained and recorded in the previous chapter are discussed. All the points mentioned throughout the five chapters are concluded in Chapter 6. Additionally, suggestions of how to improve the current educational provision for sick and hospitalised children are also provided. The research carried out resulted in the fact that even though educational provision is present at St. Luke's Hospital, more needs to be done to provide the optimum service for these children. Furthermore, more co-operation and liaison is necessary among the diverse personnel involved in the following settings and services: the Education Division, the Hospital school, primary schools and home tuition teachers. With regards to local primary schools, lessons about this topic could be integrated in the syllabus and eventually delivered to prepare primary school children for an eventual admission into hospital.