Inside Duke Medicine

Child’s homework inspires a comforting project for kids undergoing surgery

A homework assignment for a nurse's son turned into a special project that is helping put kids at ease before undergoing surgery.

Jennifer Massengill, nurse manager at the Ambulatory Surgery Center, brought son Carter's school project, called Flat Carter, to work with her to observe what goes on during surgery. 

Carter was given a common assignment for kids his age. It is known as the Flat Stanley Project, a spinoff of a book series by the same name, and is designed to generate a pen-pal spirit among kids. Children create their own flat characters and send them on journeys. Once the flat character has documented his travels, he is sent to another student and the process continues.

Flat Carter spent the day at the ASC going through pre-op, surgery and post-op. He was then scheduled to report back to the real Carter and he did, but not before he inspired a nurse to help her patients.

Susan Bazemore, RN, at the ASC, thought Flat Carter could be adapted to help children, who come to the center for things like having their tonsils removed. While procedures like tonsillectomies are often considered routine, they can be frightening for children. Bazemore thought the kids’ fears might be eased if they made a flat character of their own and it went through everything they would encounter before they did.

What happened next is the result of great teamwork. It involved everyone at the ASC, including a couple of Junior Volunteers.

“We decided that we could make characters for the children to take with them in the operating room,” Bazemore said.

Massengill loved the idea, but didn’t know how much time they had to put into making it happen. That’s where the Junior Volunteers came in.

“They took off with the idea and took it to a new level,” Massengill said. “They thought of ideas to give the characters socks, hats and all the stuff that the original Flat Carter never had.”

Junior Volunteer Anshuleuna Vipparla explained that if the kids are having surgery on their arms or knees, they can bandage their character’s arm or knee first. She and Jordan Carlson, another Junior Volunteer, made an educational board that illustrates what the process of surgery might look like.

Vipparla’s favorite part of the board shows kids that they can choose what flavor mask the anesthesiologist gives them.

“I know I got excited about that,” she said. “So, there are little things that make this more fun for them.”

“Our hope is that it helps make the surgery a little less scary,” Massengill said.

So far the team is finding that the Flat Carter project is working.

“It’s a little cure for boredom during any waiting time,” Bazemore said. “And, in helping keep the kids comfortable, the parents are a lot less anxious, too.”