Dear Klíček Foundation,

After viewing the "Not to Stay Alone" video-film, I express my gratitude to you as a medical doctor. This should be a prescribed film especially for those who work at the Ministry of Health, for all the hospital directors, professors, senior consultants at children's wards and also for the medical students.

40 years of totalitarianism have left their stamp in the way in which many of these "leaders" think - that is why parents are often pushed into the role of outsiders who are not partners for doctors and nurses and just bother them with their presence on the ward. And it also has one more reason - many nurses and doctors have not yet realized that their work is more than a mere job, it is a kind of a mission.

Apart from brave and honest nurses, there also are - on many wards - whole gangs of nurses that do not keep the most elementary principles of nursing care, who do not use the working time properly, and who do not deal with psychological needs of their children patients.

Clinical needs are usually perceived as important but psychological aspects of the care are totally omitted. Being separated from his or her parents, the child cannot feel safe and loved. And moreover - feelings of insecurity and humiliation in children often become stumbling blocks to better therapeutic effect of hospital treatment.

Július Špánik, M.D.
Director of Children's Sanatorium Železnô, Slovakia