In several special spots around Riley, patients get the chance to take a break from the reality of their home away from home in the hospital and do something normal: go to school. Four classrooms inside the hospital, one on the blood disorder and cancer center unit, one on the rehabilitation unit, one on 8 West, and one on our behavioral health unit, are places where our inpatient learners can go to keep up with their studies.
"Sometimes people ask me, "You make sick kids do school," Stacy Willett, educational liaison, explained. "I like to rephrase that and let them know that usually secondary to getting a diagnosis of anything here in this setting, school is the next stressor for our patients and families because a child's job is to be in school."
On 5 West, the classroom is open to school-age patients five days a week for an hour each day. The kids come for academic support from the hospital's teachers.
"Our mission is to contact schools and make sure they are working on their schoolwork from their home school," Willett explained. We are not providing lessons and doing grading; they are still connected to their home school, which is our hope that they return when they are medically cleared to go back to school in person."
Within the classroom, the brightly decorated walls are full of learning tools like calendars and shapes. Besides general schoolwork, patients are also able to play games and socialize with other kids from the floor. For this one-hour period, it's just them and the teachers.
"It's routine for not only our patients, but it's also routine for our caregivers, Willett said. "Within our classroom, we do not allow caregivers to come to school because they don't go to school when you're at home. It provides an hour of time for the caregivers to take care of themselves and do things they need to do."
If a child is in isolation, the educators find a different way to support them.
"If a student is not able to come to school because of isolation, we still provide bedside instruction," Willett explained.
Willett has been a teacher at Riley for 23 years and adores her job.
"I can't even explain why I just love what I do, I just love Riley hospital and what I do," Willett exclaimed. "I just feel like this job was made for me and I was lucky enough to find out about it."
She is far from the only longtime teacher at Riley; Heather Homan also works on 5 West and has devoted nearly 17 years to patients at the hospital.
"Coming here doesn't feel like a job," Homan explained. "It's part of who I am, and my coworkers, the kids, the families, it's a privilege to serve them every day."
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