Akron Children’s employees and John Carroll University nursing students volunteered for the teddy bear clinic.
Two organizations are near and dear to Emergency Room (ER) Nurse Practitioner Carrie Litten’s heart: Akron Children’s and GiGi’s Playhouse. She recently brought those organizations together by coordinating a hands-on learning experience.
Carrie’s event was the first teddy bear clinic for school-aged kids with Down syndrome at GiGi’s Playhouse in Cleveland. GiGi’s Playhouse is a network of more than 60 Down syndrome achievement centers throughout the United States and Mexico. “My dad was a founding board member for the GiGi’s Playhouse in Cleveland 10 years ago,” Carrie said. “My sister joined the board after our dad passed away, and then I joined the board 3 years ago.”
Carrie’s formative years
Growing up, Carrie was surrounded by people of different abilities. Her dad spent his early career in special education. Her parents operated a nonprofit, which taught job skills to people with disabilities, along with a group home. At different times throughout her childhood, 2 to 4 individuals with disabilities lived with Carrie and her family.
In addition, Carrie’s maternal aunt had Down syndrome. “My Aunt Ellen really blessed my life. She brought a lot of joy and taught me to love and accept people who were different,” Carrie said. “If you know someone with Down syndrome, you can attest to what a special connection you can have with them and the extra joy they bring!”
Planning and staffing the stuffed animal clinic
Carrie saw online that the GiGi’s Playhouse in Fargo, North Dakota had a teddy bear clinic. She approached the Cleveland playhouse’s executive director about the idea, got the OK and started planning. “The Fargo team shared so much information with me – from maps of where they put the activities to what items they gave away,” she said. “They made our job a lot easier.”
GiGi’s Playhouse has a special place in Carrie Litten’s heart.
Once Carrie received approval for the clinic, she got to work on finding Akron Children’s employees to volunteer. “Patients with Down syndrome have certain health care needs and often visit subspecialists,” she explained. “I wanted to include Sleep Medicine, Cardiology, Pulmonology and Orthopedics and offer the attendees an opportunity to see that a health care visit can be fun and not fearful. We also had ER and Burn Center representation.”
Through a friend, Carrie also enlisted the help of four senior nursing students from John Carroll University. “I thought the exposure to kids with Down syndrome would be good for the nursing students because they may not have had that opportunity,” Carrie said. “The nursing students checked each teddy bear into the clinic, taking its height and weight, and then provided an appointment card to guide the kids through the stations.”
For example, the ER had small rubber ducks with red glitter “boo-boos” on their backs that the kids washed off and covered with bandages. Cardiology brought an echocardiogram machine, so kids could put the probe on the teddy bears’ chests, while a fake echo test showed on the screen. Sleep Medicine had masks for the kids to play and try on as many of them need sleep studies. Pulmonology provided asthma-related activities.
Michael Merritt, Sleep Medicine supervisor, demonstrates a sleep mask.
Hoping for more teddy bear clinics
About 15 participants came through the stuffed animal clinic – kids with Down syndrome as well as some of their siblings. “Our event conflicted with another playhouse event happening that day,” Carrie said. “But for our first time, I think that was a really good number of participants.”
Carrie would love to make the teddy bear clinic at Gigi’s Playhouse in Cleveland an annual event. Another GiGi’s Playhouse is in Canton, and Carrie is in talks to do a teddy bear clinic there in August. She’d also like to add a guest speaker to educate parents on a health care topic relevant to kids with Down syndrome.
The benefits of volunteering
In addition to providing a fun event for the GiGi’s Playhouse participants and their families, the teddy bear clinic provided a great team-building activity for the Akron Children’s staff. “The volunteers were excited, and I’m so grateful for their support,” Carrie said. “Many of them asked when we’re going to do another clinic.”
Carrie encourages Akron Children’s employees – clinical and nonclinical – to get involved in the community. “Volunteering allows you to share your skills and knowledge with others,” she said. “I’ve been a nurse practitioner for 23 years. I think when you’re in the trenches day-to-day, you might get burned out and feel tired. Taking a step away and doing something that you love for the community and aligns with your work brings that joy back.”
