Student Organizations: Medbuddies

The Medbuddies Program is designed to help children and their families through the difficult experience of being in the hospital for an extended period. Our program pairs hospitalized children of all ages with a medical or nursing student to be a friend to the child throughout his or her stay in the hospital. The medbuddy is there to give support, encouragement, comfort and companionship to the patient, to be a friend whom the child can count on, to be an aid to the family of the patient, and help them in whichever way is most beneficial. The students, who are strictly acting as volunteers and are not involved in any delivery of health care, have the opportunity to understand the issues related to illness from the child and family’s perspective.

Activities

Infants
A medbuddy may sing, read and play with the babies. At the discretion of the medical staff and, depending upon the condition of the child, a medbuddy may rock and feed the infant. If your buddy is sleeping, don’t wake him or her up.

Children
Child patients may also be read to and entertained in many ways. A medbuddy may want to draw, play cards or board games with the children. At the discretion of the medical staff and depending upon the condition of the child, the patient may be taken to the child-life centers or outdoors on hospital grounds. Please watch them carefully so that they don’t pull out any IV’s or other tubes.

Adolescents
Adolescents may also enjoy being read to, watching movies, surfing the internet or playing cards. Some teenagers may enjoy having magazines or music brought to them. Obviously their interests will be more varied. At the discretion of the medical staff, you can accompany your buddy to the cafeteria or outside on hospital grounds.

Guidelines for current medbuddies

2005 - 2006 Medbuddies Coordinators

• 5th Floor: Jyoti Kandlikar, Medical Student
• 6th Floor: Liz Meza, Medical Student
• 7th Floor: Preetha Iyengar, Medical Student

Join Us!

We accept applications from medical and nursing students at the beginning of each school year. The medbuddy coordinators will distribute more information regarding the application process in early September for medical students and early October for the nursing students.