MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The coronavirus isn’t stopping Easter celebrations at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.
But those celebrations will look a little different.
“Our overall goal is just to make the hospital feel as normal as possible,” said Jessica Liles, director of Child Life at Le Bonheur. “Even just providing opportunities for kids to be kids and play at the hospital.”
Easter has always been an opportunity to entertain, but this year with the coronavirus pandemic and new safety guidelines, Liles’ team had to get creative.
“Really it was this idea of how can we make a virtual easter egg hunt,” she said.
It’s almost like a game of I-spy. The patients have been playing from their rooms.
“We are using our closed-circuit television channel to do that,” Liles said. “Some of our team members hid eggs in the hospital. We took pictures, and the goal is for them to find the eggs in the different images. I am very fortunate that I work with a team that’s innovative.”
Liles and her team also figured out a way for patients to get a picture with the Easter Bunny using an app.
“The hospital already doesn’t feel normal for those children, then you add everything going on around us,” Liles said.
For a moment, patients have a distraction.
“We want a bright spot in our day and everything to feel normal in the midst of everything around us that doesn’t feel normal,” Liles said.
