Pre-professional practices as transformers of the hospital reality

Abstract

This paper intends to reflect on the valuable experience that results from pre-professional practices in the “health and sanitation” context of the School of Psychology of the National University of Córdoba, which were carried out at the Children's Hospital of la Santísima Trinidad, Córdoba, but were later interrupted due to the pandemic. The objective is to focus on the "Playing Corner", one of the spaces of the "Playroom and mobile playing center" program, which stems from and is built around active and transforming interventions on the hospital’s reality, its children and adolescents, and the healthcare team. To accomplish this, the students carried out a set of actions within the framework of the School of Psychology University extension activities, which involved coordinating the space and conducting ongoing analyses of the situation and the children's and adolescents’ needs. In addition, the students reflected upon, defined and structured a salutogenic space that was constantly under development, by using the game as a tool, through collaborative dynamics, where they met and shared with others, finding a place of support and comfort. During the Covid-19 pandemic, isolation, silence and distance from others prevailed; conditions which are opposed to the characteristics and main principles of the "Playing Corner". The void left by the absence of the “Playing Corner” during the pandemic highlights the need to resume it and make it visible as a tool to co-construct and transform institutional reality.