Teddy bears equipped with medical devices could help reduce medical anxiety among paediatric patients who require similar support.
Children who live with medical devices often feel anxious or self-conscious about them, especially around other children at school.
Paediatric residents at the Mayo Clinic hope to help their patients feel more comfortable. Their solution: teddy bears fitted with the same medical devices such as gastronomy tubes, tracheostomy tubes, and pacemakers, aiming to normalise these devices.
The programme, outlined in an abstract titled The Teddy Bear Clinic: A Therapeutic Play Intervention to Normalise Paediatric Medical Devices, offers benefits to medical students, paediatric residents, and their patients. Medical students and residents can practise suturing techniques while preparing the bears with each device, and patients see a real-life representation of their own care. The additional suture practice also helps medical students and residents build confidence and can double as a peer-education tool.
Anders Jenson, paediatric resident at Mayo Clinic, said: ‘Therapeutic play has long been used to ease children’s medical fears, but this advocacy project specifically targets the body-image and self-consciousness piece, the part of a child’s experience tied to feeling “different” because of a medical device. It’s a small, easily replicated idea with a real emotional payoff for kids with medical devices.’
The bears can serve as a hands-on recruitment tool that introduces medical students to paediatrics through a low-pressure, high-impact, meaningful project, the authors state. Families can also use the bears to practise the care steps their child needs on their devices, and the bears can help other children understand and accept peers who use medical devices.
Drawing on his own experience, Dr Jenson said: ‘As someone with a medical device, I remember how isolating it could feel growing up surrounded by those without one. I hope these teddy-bears help children feel more comfortable and confident with their medical devices, knowing they are not alone on their journey.’
The project was presented at the American Academy of Paediatrics’ 2026 National Conference & Exhibition earlier this month (October).
