Camden Kindergartners Learn About Medicine Through Use Of Teddy Bears
CAMDEN, NJ. (CBS) -- The folks at Cooper Hospital are helping children learn about medicine and being healthy through the use of teddy bears.
Students from the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy participated in the 2nd annual "Teddy Goes to Cooper" day on Wednesday.
"Every kindergarten scholar gets a teddy bear to start. And the teddy bear will get a diagnosis," said Susan Bass Levin, president and CEO at the Cooper Foundation at the hospital. "They'll be examined by a doctor and a nurse. They'll get x-rays."
But some of the teddy bears are more clumsy than others....
Kuznits: "It looks like your teddy bear has a cast on his leg."
"Because he was on his scooter and he wasn't wearing a helmet, and his bone fell out."
And another teddy needed some care after he hurt his leg while running.
"I gave him his temperature," said 5-year-old Taj. "I gave him a needle and I wiped his knee."
By examining their bears, Levin says the goal is to alleviate children's' fears of medical treatment and perhaps even get them interested in the medical field.
"I think that our staff likes this as much as the children and maybe more because they've been asking all year, when are the kids coming, when are the kids coming."