Enhancing Pediatric Inpatient Care with Robin the Robot: Improving Emotional Well-being through AI-Powered Companionship
Child life specialists at this facility have begun utilizing a technologically advanced device as part of their interventions to encourage innovative play that aids in education, preparation, distraction and isolation when faced with challenging medical experiences and hospitalizations.
Suggested Domain: Intervention
Credits: 1.0 PDU
Learning Objective(s):
By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to share about a new technologically advanced device that is revolutionizing how to connect with pediatric patients in a hospital setting.
By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to detail how this new technology follows hospital compliance regulations and how to maintain to this technology.
By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to describe case studies on how the device is being used as an intervention to help prepare children for procedures and coping with their hospitalization.
Please note: All series content and its related certificates will expire on 8/1/2028 regardless of when it is purchased, accessed, or completed. At that point, contents will no longer be available in any form, including as an archive or as a PDU certificate. It is the responsibility of the learner to complete the contents and download and save the certificates for their records before 8/1/2028.
Micaela Cotas (Moderator)
MS, CCLS
UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center
Micaela Cotas, MS, CCLS – Micaela is a Certified Child Life Specialist with 16 years of experience supporting children and families through medical challenges. For the past 8 years, she has served in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at UMass Memorial Children’s Medical Center. Micaela specializes in integrating technology—such as social robots—to improve the hospital experience for pediatric patients and has a particular interest in grief and bereavement support. Outside of work, she enjoys traveling and spending time by the ocean with her husband and two children.
Kendra Frederick (Moderator)
Manager of the Child Life, Music Therapy and Animal Assisted Therapy
UMass Memorial Health- Children’s Medical Center
Kendra Frederick, MS, CCLS - Kendra currently serves as the manager of the Child Life, Music Therapy and Animal Assisted Therapy programs at UMass Memorial Health- Children’s Medical Center. A Certified Child Life Specialist with over two decades of experience, Kendra has been passionately helping children and their families navigate challenging medical experiences with empathy, creativity, and evidence-based care. Kendra leads a dedicated team of professionals focused on reducing the physical and emotional stress associated with hospitalization through a wide variety of developmentally appropriate and non-pharmacological interventions. Kendra is an advocate for individualized and family-centered care. Her meaningful contributions to the field include collaborating on a system-wide initiative to reduce the pain and fear associated with needle sticks, implementation of a human-assisted artificially intelligent robot for inpatient care, spearheading a community-based teddy bear clinic providing education through play and assisting in the development of a pediatric behavioral health response team to meet the needs of children admitted in mental health crisis. Recognizing the ever-changing landscape in pediatric healthcare, Kendra has had the distinguished honor of being named innovator of the year by UMass Memorial Health for three consecutive years.
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