Children’s hospitals deliver the care that shapes the next generation of teachers, musicians, MVPs, and astronauts. From providing the comprehensive care children need to thrive to conducting breakthrough research for the most complex conditions, children’s hospitals always put kids first. Discover more about children’s hospitals and providers who are advancing children’s health.
Children’s hospitals aren’t just places of care—they’re hubs of pediatric research and innovation. Around the country, physician scientists are studying complex diseases like pediatric neuroblastoma, solid tumors, and pediatric cardiothoracic diagnoses.
Child life specialists are a crucial part of the pediatric workforce. For children and teens, serious diagnoses, complicated procedures, and long hospital stays can be confusing and anxiety inducing. That’s why children’s hospitals employ child life specialists. From facilitating play that allows kids to feel like kids to helping patients and families know what to expect every step of the way, child life specialists make children and teen’s time in children’s hospitals as comfortable as possible.
Putting kids first means making sure children can get expert respiratory care when they need it. That’s becoming more challenging, as children’s hospitals struggle to recruit and retain pediatric respiratory therapists. Norton Children’s developed a workforce strategy that creates a pipeline of future specialists. Through two innovative programs, the hospital is preparing the next generation of respiratory experts. An apprenticeship program brings students who are pursuing respiratory therapy into the hospital to observe patients, learn equipment and gas safety, and gain critical hands-on experience. The second program begins after graduation. The 10-month program gives newly licensed therapists advanced pediatric training through classroom instruction, high-fidelity simulation, and clinical rotations, preparing them for the most complex critical-care cases. Together, these programs help Norton Children’s grow its pediatric respiratory workforce and ensure access to expert care for kids. To put kids first, we must invest in the future of pediatric care and strengthen access to specialized services — and hospitals like Norton Children’s are doing exactly that.
For kids with rare diseases, every day without an answer matters. At Children’s Mercy in Kansas City, advances in genomic medicine are helping families receive diagnoses and treatments faster, giving children a better chance to grow, play, and thrive. Dalton was rapidly losing his hearing, speech, and mobility as his family searched for a diagnosis. That’s when a team at Children’s Mercy used genome sequencing to identify the 3-year-old’s neurological disorder and give doctors a treatment plan. Through two breakthrough technologies, Children’s Mercy is now delivering answers faster than ever. Long-read sequencing reads 100% of a child’s genome and can shorten a process that once took months or years to less than two weeks, helping the hospital’s Genomic Medicine Center make more than 2,400 rare-disease diagnoses. And organoids, miniature models grown from a child’s own cells, let researchers test therapies safely. Together, these advances give families answers and kids the treatments they need to thrive. By investing in faster diagnoses, more personalized treatments, and research that can be shared with hospitals around the world, Children’s Mercy is working to put kids first and ensure more families receive the critical care they need.
Child life specialists are a crucial part of the pediatric workforce. For children and teens, serious diagnoses, complicated procedures, and long hospital stays can be confusing and anxiety inducing. That’s why children’s hospitals employ child life specialists. From facilitating play that allows kids to feel like kids to helping patients and families know what to expect every step of the way, child life specialists make children and teen’s time in children’s hospitals as comfortable as possible.
Children’s hospitals aren’t just places of care—they’re hubs of pediatric research and innovation. Around the country, physician scientists are studying complex diseases like pediatric neuroblastoma, solid tumors, and pediatric cardiothoracic diagnoses.
