Preparing Your Child/Youth for Admission to the Health Centre

At left here you will find a list of some of our Children’s Health inpatient units – these are units where patients within our Children’s Health program stay during admission to the Health Centre. This list also includes departments and services that support children and youth during their stays at the IWK. You can search the list by scrolling at left or selecting the first letter of the unit/service name from the alphabet above. Please note this isn’t a complete list – expect more to be added soon.

Preparing your child/youth for his/her visit to the IWK will help reduce some of his/her concerns. Here are some suggestions to help you do this:

• Meet with your doctor to help explain to your child/youth where s/he will be going and what will happen.
• Check your local library for any information about hospital visits that you can share with your child.
• Tell your child that you will be able to visit/stay as much as you can during his/her visit to the Health Centre.

Admitting

The Admitting area is located on the main floor, near the Women’s and Maternity Services entrance.

• Bring your Health Card or hospital insurance number (including effective and expiry dates) and your child’s/youth’s IWK Health Centre plastic card, if you have one.
• A parent or legal guardian must accompany children/youth to sign consents for treatment and government billing forms if he/she is unable to do so for him/herself.
• You may also need to give information about allergies, immunizations and infectious diseases, or any other information you feel is important to your child’s/youth’s care.
• Your child/youth will receive an armband with his/her name; a special armband will be given to your child/youth if he/she has allergies.
• You and your child/youth will then be accompanied to the patient care unit where you will be introduced to a member of the nursing staff.

To make admitting easier for you, your child/youth may be admitted on the unit where he/she will receive care. For scheduled admissions, you will receive a notice in the mail, including instructions and directions to your admitting site.

Please note:

If your child has a cough, cold, temperature, diarrhea or vomiting, or has been in contact with any of the following list of communicable diseases within a three-week period prior to admission, please call the Admitting Department at (902) 470-8103, or the unit where your child is to be admitted. You may have to reschedule your child’s visit to the Health Centre.

• Chicken Pox
• Measles
• German Measles
• Mumps
• Whooping Cough