What do all these people you meet?

 This paediatric lexicon will help you explain to your child the role of everyone he can be called to meet at the hospital. In summary, the definitions are quite simple and it allows the child to know better the hospital staff or at home. Understanding their role is as a step towards active participation in acts of care.

"Who are those people I meet at the hospital, at home whose profession bear complicated names ? "

What it’s for sure is they are there to help you!

Family Assistant

The assistant takes care of sick patients at their home. He/She washes, gives them a bath, babysit them when their parents are absent. He/She also cleans a bit, goes grocery shopping and helps the parents in administrative matters in the commune.

Housecleaner

A person who will help the family by cleaning their house when the parents will not have time to do so.

Caregiver

He/She will help the nurses in some cares.

Anaesthesiologist

It is the doctor who will put a child to sleep before he gets a surgery. He takes care of you during the surgery and helps the child when he wakes up. Before the anaesthesia one cannot eat or drink.

Social Assistant

This person helps the child’s parents to complete the required formalities (filling out forms, calling and getting information, etc). This person helps the child’s entrance in and exit from the hospital.

Cardiologist

It is a doctor who treats diseases of the heart and blood vessels.

Head of the clinic

It is doctor who assists the professor or the specialist treating a sick child.

Occupational Therapist

This person helps a child to organize his life in the hospital, at home and at school when he has a temporary condition or a disability. He/She advises the child and the child’s parents so as to simplify all things and all tasks that are to be done by the child: to get dressed, eat, move, read, write. He/She also knows the best equipment, tools and games that the child will enjoy most and will be useful for him.

Nurse

This person does several things. He/She helps the doctor to treat the patients and to give them medication, take the blood pressure and temperature, make shots, set up machines, watches over the child when he sleeps, etc. During a hospitalisation, he/she will take care of the child's welfare and will ensure that his treatment is properly followed. He/She can also call the doctor, the psychologist, the psychologist, the physiologist, the social assistant and any other person needed by the child in the hospital.

Connection nurse

This person organizes the return of a sick child home. He/She takes care of the service that will be provided at the patient’s home such as an occupational therapist, a therapist, etc. He/She contacts the patient’s doctor, the patient’s parents the explanations about the needed care.

Physiotherapist

This person helps sick and/or injured patients to recover their mobility by giving them massages and relieving pain by various techniques such as gym stimulating specific parts of the body. The physiotherapist also helps them to breathe easier and, in general, to feel better in their body.

Speech therapist

This person helps patients who have difficulty expressing themselves. It corrects errors in pronunciation and teaches them to listen and reproduce various sounds of language.

Psychologist

This person speaks with patients and their family. He/She listens to them when they are worried and/or if they want to discuss a problem or their illness. He/She helps them to find solutions to the questions they ask.

Radiologist

This doctor takes pictures of the inside of the patients’ body by using X-ray, a scanner or an ultrasound. Thus, he/she can see what is happening inside their body and make pictures for the doctor so as he can treat them accordingly.