At the Faculty of Medicine, about thirty children from the Schongauer nursery school wait, a blanket in hand. Broken legs, headaches, stomach aches, cuts... The list of their worries is long.

"I'm Lola and I'm a teddy nurse. Why is your teddy bear coming to see the doctor today?" asks one student.

"It hurts here," replies Youssouf, 5, pointing to the leg of his stuffed cow named "Boug". Conscientious, the little boy brought the health record of the animal, which appears drawn there, with its age (4 years) and size (25 centimeters).

Sprained or broken leg? To check, go to the MRI. In a black and white image the fracture is visible; A passage through the operating room is necessary.

"We're going to put a mask on him to put him to sleep, so he won't feel anything. Do you do it?"

A little girl treats her cuddly toy at the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg where "teddy" students teach children not to be afraid of the hospital, March 20, 2023 © Frederick FLORIN / AFP

In a surgical gown, Youssouf puts his blanket to sleep before bandaging his paw. But the journey of the toy is not over: place to vaccines and blood test.

"I've already done a blood test myself and I was brave," the little boy boasts. By reproducing this gesture on his stuffed animal, he notes that everything is going well, and that's the whole point of the operation.

"No apprehension"

"Often when children arrive at the hospital they are a little confused. Our goal is to show them how it goes and that they don't have any apprehension when they see white coats for the first time," says Lola Ruff, a third-year medical student.

"If they can have a good first impression that's very important to us," she adds.

About forty students in medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, osteopathy or nursing students devote four mornings to welcoming the little ones. They explain their specialty to the children and give them some anatomy lessons, using for example a giant disemboweled bear from which a long pudding escapes.

"Wow is a snake?" asks Youssouf. "No, it's the gut," corrects Elsa, a medical student.

This foray into the world of medicine is also an opportunity to review certain gestures such as hand washing and brushing teeth.

A little boy treated his cuddly toy at the Faculty of Medicine in Strasbourg where student "teddy bearologists" teach children not to be afraid of the hospital, March 20, 2023 © FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP

For Roselyne Saettler, a teacher in the Schongauer school, located in a priority district of the city's policy, these are very useful reminders: "children lack hygiene rules," she says.

Before coming with her class, she asked everyone to choose a stuffed animal and imagine their symptoms because "taking on the role of parent for them is more reassuring, it allows them to detach themselves from the situation".

Reliving lived situations often loosens tongues, as for Safiya, 5, who remembers having a vaccine: "it was a little scary but it did not hurt".

For students, the morning is also a workout, says Lola Ruff. "The child is a patient who is really different, since we will not be able to talk to him as an adult, we will have to use another vocabulary."

And faced with sometimes silent children, "it's a good challenge" to get them to express themselves, she continues. "Some children, when they see us coming, it can scare them and gradually we see that they laugh, that they feel better and there, it's won for us."

© 2023 AFP