Children are doctors for a day at Teddy Bear Hospital Bruges

During the first edition of the Teddy Bear Hospital at KU Leuven – Bruges, about ninety children between four and seven years old get the chance to be a doctor or physiotherapist for a sick teddy bear for a day. This way they get to know the different aspects of a hospital. The aim is to take away the fear many children have of the doctor. “We want to let them experience from the front row what a doctor does now. They do this by letting the children take their sick teddy bear on a whole medical course through the campus. The bear is operated on, an RX is taken , he will receive a physio treatment,” the organization says. It is eMSA Kulak (Belgian Medical Students Association), an association of students of medicine and biomedical sciences, who organize the day together with students of physiotherapy and rehabilitation sciences from the Bruges KU Leuven campus. The students organize various medical related events so that they can have a positive impact on the health care in the region during their education.