Bonnie Garner, RN, Child Care Health Consultant with MAHECand Buncombe Partnership for Children has been providing intensive health
consultation and coaching to Irene Wortham Early Learning Center, a
developmental day program for children with special health needs. As an advocate for children and promoting a
healthy and safe environment, the CCHC was looking for opportunities to support
the health needs of several medically fragile children and to help the staff
meet the developmental needs of the child.
Bonnie collaborated with the Pediatric faculty and students from Western
Carolina University’s School of Nursing who have developed the WHEE Wagon
Program.
This service learning
program seeks to provide specially equipped IV Pole Radio Flyer wagons for
children with medical needs. The team has witnessed the joy that a simple wagon
ride can bring to a medically fragile child, and evidence shows that play can
have a significant impact on pediatric health status. The group feels it is
vitally important that children who have complex health needs to be able to
enjoy the same experiences that other children do, and feel a wagon ride is
just the way to do this!
A WHEE Wagon is just like a normal red wagon that kids ride
and play in every day, but these wagons are specially equipped with an IV pole
attached to the front. The IV pole attachment on the wagon ensures that the medically
fragile children can have the opportunity to transport the children’s feeding
pump or other medically required equipment. Rather than being stuck in a wheelchair,
a WHEE Wagon is a more engaging mode of transportation for the children. The
wagons can be used while the children play, are transported from the classroom
to the OLE or provide the opportunity to be on eye level with other children.
The WHEE Wagon program will allow kids to reconnect with the
normal everyday world of just being a child, at a time when they may feel cut
off from that world due to acute or chronic illness. These WHEE Wagons, could
enrich the life of a specific medically fragile child through freedom of
mobility and the basic joy of play. The five WHEE Wagons were donated to Irene
Wortham, with the belief that a simple wagon ride could potentially touch the
lives of ill children.
