Introducing physical education to hospital learning – can patients participate?

Abstract

Children and young people with chronic health conditions are at greater risk of school absence and poorer educational achievement than their healthy peers. A range of strategies are implemented in home, school and hospital settings to improve the connection of these children and young people to their educational pathways, yet gaps in provision remain. Physical education (PE), while widely recognised as bringing important educational, social and health benefits to students, is not often included in hospital-based education support. This is due to a range of factors which result from the unique confluence of students with health conditions, use of generalist rather than specialist teachers in hospitals and the physical constraints on learning in the health care setting. This paper reports on the evaluation of an initiative to introduce PE for students in hospital.

Keywords:

• physical education
• hospital education
• chronic health conditions
• golf

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all the students, parents, siblings and staff who generously gave up their time to participate in this research project.

Notes on contributors

Ayuba Issaka is a Research and Evaluation Officer at the Hume City Council in Victoria, Australia. He contributes to an initiative that aims to improve people's health in a variety of life settings (community, schools and workplaces). Ayuba's research interests focus on the interconnections between education, PA, health and well-being. He also has a particular interest in system thinking and the complexities that multicultural, multi-lingual and multi-faith societies bring to a system.

Liza Hopkins is a Research Officer at the Centre of Excellence in Intervention and Prevention Science (CEIPS). Before joining CEIPS, Liza was a Research Fellow at the Royal Children's Hospital Education Institute, working on a number of research and evaluation projects at the health education interface. She has a particular interest in research at the intersections of health, education, young people, cultural diversity and social inclusion.

Notes

1. The term physical education is used in this paper rather than the full term health and PE because of the potential for conceptual confusion in a hospital setting, where health education has a separate and specific meaning, relating to the education of patients and their families regarding their personal health conditions (education for health literacy). We recognise that the curriculum area covers health (including health literacy) as well as PE.

2. The programme took place during the time of the 2012 London Olympic Games.