My Healthcare Hero

With truthful and non-ambiguous language, this children’s book provides a stepping-stone for caregivers to have necessary conversations with the children in their lives regarding the novel coronavirus. COVID-19 has undoubtedly evoked anxiety, fear, and suffering for millions of individuals globally and its adverse effects are wide-ranging. This timely story aims to support and educate healthcare professionals’ children about their caregivers’ roles as helpers during this health crisis. As these frontline heroes clock out from their shifts each day, their anxieties do not simply come to a halt as they leave the hospital. These healthcare workers not only have a professional obligation, but a familial one too, and many honorably hold the title of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends. As a Certified Child Life Specialist, Sam Ochse identified a need to create a culturally inclusive therapeutic book that minimizes misconceptions related to COVID-19. When children are offered truthful and developmentally appropriate information, they have an enhanced capacity to adapt to and cope with stressful experiences. By normalizing big emotions, maximizing coping, and promoting feelings of care and concern, My Healthcare Hero serves as a vehicle for creating safe spaces where self-expression is not only encouraged, but celebrated.