Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - February 25, 2001, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg february 2001 Magazine b3 prepare child for Hospital stay when Anna magyars three year old daughter Marina needed tubes in her ears to Drain an the Winnipeg Mother talked openly with her daughter about what to expect at the i explained to Marina every thing that was going to happen and that shed be Able to keep her Favourite baby and Blankie and have whatever flavour of Anes thetic she wanted you know it they were All out of cheese Flavoured Magyar says with a but parents need Sharon health promotion Edu Cator at Sturgeon Community Hospital and health Centre in near advises parents to learn As much As they can about Why their child has to stay in the Hospital and what procedures will be then answer the Childs questions play Hospital or read a Story about a trip to the she you might also visit the childrens Ward one of the Best teach ing tools we use is a photo album show ing pictures of the admitting operating room and Nurs ing says Kim the centres patient care children can also tour the paediatric unit and get to meet the nurse who will care for the magyars raised the Issue of pain beforehand because they wanted to be totally honest with we said shed have an Owen in her but that Mommy and daddy would use special drops so it Hurt so Marina was relieved to be wrapped in her beloved Blankie right after surgery and delighted when her picture was stuck up on the photo Wall with those of All the other kids who had but when Carolyn Landry oneyear old daughter now contracted a mysterious bacterial she didst have the luxury of preparing the Little girl for a scheduled Hospital when we rushed Chantelle she was suffering from dehydration and had trouble eating because of the sores on the Back of her the red mom the hos Pital allowed them to Bathe their Daugh Ter and stay with her around the Chantelle had an attached to a pole and if we haunt stayed with her she would have pulled it Kisko paediatric patients Are More at ease when a Parent washes or feeds them so parents should get involved in Hospital care and stay As Long As Johnston agrees that parents Are essential in helping their children in the Hospital parents can help nurses and doctors by interpreting their Childs reactions and but since children pick up on their parents its important for attend ing parents to keep their own anxiety under and if they cant Bear to watch their child undergo an invasive its better to leave the because the fear and anxiety displayed on a parents face will Only increase the Childs Landry the Only time i came close to breaking Down was when they put the into Chantelle tiny Arm because she looked so Little and so vulnerable and she was absolutely Ter and one of the nurses looked Over at me and gently asked Are you mom she also believes that it is very important to question the Hospital staff about there was a nurse that Mike didst agree with and he said to her youve tried this and it sat work ing and Shes screaming so lets try some thing else they might be doctors and nurses and have All this medical knowl Edge but we know our child and we know How much poking and prodding she can put up with and when she has reached her some hospitals provide Tours of the entire and most paediatric wards allow parents and children to visit the Ward before a Check with the Hospital at least one week before your child is admitted to see what is further Reading curious George goes to the Hospital by Margaret and Rey in collaboration with the childrens Hospital medical Centre in a Hospital Story by Sara Bonnett Stein 1984 the emergency room by Anne and Harlow Rockwell 1985 my Friend the doctor by Jane Werner wat Robert Switzer and Cotter Karen Wade is a Winnipeg her column appears reprinted with permission of owl Canadian family family great Brad Oswald we statistics Canada informed us last watch ing less television than should anyone be worried about this if youre a Parent whose main concern is raising Well energetic and engaged or youre a Couch Pota to intent on living a More Active probably but if youre a television network executive or a producer of to program the latest Sta scan figures Are yet another entry in a growing list of reasons to feel quite uneasy about where things Are the to landscape is changing not in the methodical manner in which continents Drift and glaciers Advance to the but rather with the Speed and Transfer native Force of an Earth quake or a volcanic stats cans released a couple of weeks suggests that canadians watched an average of hours of to per week in which amounts to nearly an hour per week less to than they did in 1998 and almost two full hours less than in the drop off in viewing among teens and adults under 24 is much More a change that can be at least in by the fact that these demographic groups rep resent the internet generation that has Many More electronic Media options at its disposal than its parents generation for More than a the folks who run the major com Mercial networks have watched helplessly As the eve expanding universe of Cable and specially to service has eaten away at their audience Canadas conventional English language broadcasters global watched their share of the audience drop from for More than a major com Mercial net works have watched helplessly As the Ever expanding universe of Cable and specially to service has eaten away at their Audi ence share turnoff stats show Channel surfing a dying and with Good reason 62 per cent in 1990 to 48 per cent in since to networks derive their profits from advertising and since the rates they can charge for their com Mercial spots Are determined by audience measurements during ratings its pretty Safe to say that to executives consider declining audience shares to be a very bad it was bad enough to watch formerly faithful viewers defecting to other month tube options now its becoming apparent that people Are opting for horror of horrors Nonty related ways of spending their Leisure much worse unfortunately for the television its about to get much South of the where the vast majority of the network to that we canadians watch gets made about 70 per com pared to less than 30 per cent which is produced in the television and movie Indus tries Are almost certain to be crippled this Spring by a two Lay ered labour disruption that will virtually shut Down production in the writers Guild of America and the screen actors which represent the people who write the scripts and the people who act them out in front of the Are about to reach the end of their respective contracts with the Hollywood studios that employ current conventional Wisdom states that the opposing sides Are so far apart on issues concerning residual payments for did and new Media distribution of movies and to shows that strikes by both unions Are almost if the writers and actors hit the picket networks like Abc and Fox As Well As the Canadian networks that buy their shows will not have primetime favourites like the the West Wing and everybody loves Raymond in their lineups next what Well see for As Long As the labour dispute is a lot More wildest video compilations and reality shows like the mole and temptation High Tun out rate and what that will is a High Tun out rate for the major and per haps for to in the last time there was a work stoppage in Hollywood a strike by the Aga in 1988 the three major networks lost nine per cent of their audience and really never succeeded in get Ting those viewers and that occurred at a time when there were very few options for to watchers to the hard fact of 1988 is that we drove viewers away from network Warner television president Peter Roth said pay and Basic Cable were not really there were no video there were no video there was no there was no real Competition for there Are simply too Many voices available now to viewers for us not to believe that putting on less than com Pelling fare As is going to emerging drive them new Media Canadian press archives viewers Are defecting in record numbers to enjoy Leisure time in Nonty related and network executives Are that Why were technologies Ai Ishwor provide a Ned we re fearful that wider Range the Audi of Nonty ence May nations not come network exec the ineral utiv6s 3t do Wyvard the whims of slide in profit viewership obsessed Uoo Oahu there tends to be an ebb and flow in the Yea to year Sta scan numbers in the Canadian association of broadcasters has already Dis missed stats cans latest figures As claiming that More recent numbers show to View ing is once again on the numerical wrangling its pretty Safe to assume that next years Sta scan report which will include figures from when shows the West Wing and who wants to be a millionaire got people excited about watching to again will be much More positive than this years but in the years after the tables might Tell a different and much More desperate the longer term View suggests that the to business really is an Industry that is in Clear and pre sent transitional As labour troubles threaten to Chase its viewers emerging new Media technologies provide a wider Range of Nonty a softening advertising Market trims its earning potential and vertical corporate integration leaves network executives at the whims of profit obsessed its easy to con clude that televisions Golden age has Long since by the time those teens and Twenty somethings who Are tuning out today finally get around to running the to As we know it will be Long and our Sorto romantic notion of the lowly but lovable Channel flipping Couch Spud will be Noth ing More than a Distant ;