Playful being: an experience report about playing in the hospital

Abstract

This article is an experience report about my practice from 2014 to 2015 as a student from the Psychology Graduation of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, and trainee in the Saúde and Brincar Program of Instituto Fernandes Figueira of Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, in the Rio de Janeiro city. This is a Program whose main objective is to provide care for children and adolescents with acute and chronic illness, using the act of play as a main tool for working at hospital. Based on a theoretical-experiential methodology, the trainee conducted intervention activities with patients using various forms of play, and participated in multidisciplinary study groups and medical rounds to discuss about clinical cases. During my experience in that Program, I could observe that playing is extremely complex, despite its apparent simplicity. Moreover, the practice of playing helps in the subjective construction of children and their families, as much as it helps them cope with their pains. Based on this, this experience report aims to present reflections about my practice in that Program, describing how it works and discussing the importance of playing in the lives of hospitalized children and adolescents. As result of this experience, a new understanding of "health" and "happiness" related to the process of becoming sick was born for me, just as my soul was enchanted by the act play. This became part of my practice in other fields of activity as a psychologist, with strong reflections for my personal life.