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SALT LAKE CITY — Shaye Shockley probably doesn't remember much about being in the hospital for tear duct surgery years ago, but after Saturday's surgical services open house at Primary Children's Hospital, the 6-year-old learned a lot about the operating room.
"My favorite thing was learning how to use a wheelchair," Shaye said. "You have to use your hands to move the wheels."
While the hands-on explanation of various surgeries, procedures and instruments at the hospital intrigued the young girl, Shaye is sticking with her goal to become a teacher.
"She's comfortable being in the hospital because I work here," said her dad, Jeff Shockley, who helps enroll patients in Medicaid. He, too, was learning much about what goes on behind the typically closed doors of the surgery and operation center at the hospital.
"We want to create an environment that is non-threatening," said Sean Peters, nurse manager for Primary's operating room. "The only time kids typically see this stuff is when they are in surgery and that can be scary. This gives them an opportunity to see how we help them."
About 50 to 60 hospital employees volunteered their time Saturday to guide kids and their families — most of whose parents work at the hospital — through the experience, including a chance to sniff different flavors of anesthesia, try out the post-surgery warming beds and practice with surgical instruments in mock surgeries.
Jordan Williams, 23, said his favorite part was touching a bovine heart that was on display at the hospital Saturday.
"It's interesting to see how it all works," he said. "It's cool."
Williams has a small heart murmur and has visited Primary's before, but not with open access to hats and gowns and other surgical equipment.
Peters said surgical stuff that is usually "off limits" to the public goes on display one Saturday every other year. It gives families a glimpse into what happens when they send a child into surgery.
"Parents usually hand their child over to someone in anesthesia or to a nurse, a complete stranger to them, and then the child is wheeled into an operating room where there are masked surgeons and the child can be terrified of the unknown," he said. "So this helps decrease the anxiety."
Primary Children's Hospital serves pediatric patients in a 400,000 square-mile range, including in Utah and surrounding states. It hosts about 15,000 surgical cases each year, most commonly ear tube insertion and tonsillectomies, Peters said. Though those are same-day surgeries and most patients don't stay in the hospital overnight, Primary's surgical services staff also assist with a high number of organ transplant and brain surgeries, which results in a longer recovery process for patients.
But Peters said that while the goal of helping kids feel better is the same throughout the entire hospital, "once they leave the operating room, we don't know how they turn out."
"It can be tough when we don't get that interaction with the patients," he said, adding that Saturday's fun atmosphere and interaction with members of the community helps to calm things down for staff members.
"People who work at Primary Children's Hospital have a whole different mentality," Peters said. "We come here to have a lot of fun."
