A moment of "escape" for toddlers locked in their rooms, but which is also "part of the care": each month, a participatory TV show is filmed within the Nancy children's hospital, which has its own studio.
"Few hospitals" have such equipment, smiles Marie-Hélène Petit, an educator at the hospital and presenter of the show, which is filmed live for two hours a month.
Since 2012 and the installation of the studio in this hospital with some 150 beds, partners invited by the CHRU have come to host a program, broadcast in the rooms.
This time, it's the Nancy Aquarium Museum. Through activities, games, and musical interludes, children will learn a lot about "the creatures that fly."
"We try to bring a little bit of the museum into their rooms and make them want to come and see us afterwards, because there's nothing like setting foot in a museum to discover even more things," summarizes the day's speaker, Pierre-Marie Verjus, mediation officer at the science museums of Greater Nancy.
– 33 years of magic –
The magic has been happening for 33 years. Ms. Petit saw the project come to life, initially to "bring the outside world into the hospital": a camcorder, a VCR, an editing table, a special effects table, and determination led to the creation of Télé 8, a channel created by and for the Nancy University Hospital.
"It lasts because the hospital follows us, and the hospital follows us because it is really part of the care" for the child, to follow and participate in this type of program which offers a little "escape".
A dedicated phone number is available to them. They are regularly asked to provide live answers to games (word searches, sudokus, word guessing, etc.) and can even win prizes.
Maël, 13, who has been in surgery for some time, has gotten into the game. In his room, he watches television, phone in hand, with the pre-recorded number of the TV channel. As soon as Marie-Hélène Petit, in the studio, invites the children to call, he pulls out his smartphone and tries his luck.
"When I was little, I always told my dad to call numbers on TV to earn money. Now I can do it, even if I don't earn any money," he smiles.
The teenager, who had already filled in the word search grid distributed the day before, was also tempted by the sudoku puzzles, which he had discovered for the occasion. "It's good, it passes the time," he says.
– Like a real studio –
On the other end of the line, in the studio, Brenda, from the Les Francas association, picks up the phone and puts the children on hold or broadcasts their call live. "It's funny to hear my voice on TV," smiles Maël, who will win two gifts: a book and a board game.
For the educators who take part in the live show every month, it's a challenge: "At the beginning, we didn't know anything, we had a mini training course," recalls Marie-Hélène Petit.
Several volunteers help the hospital staff: Louane and Noah direct the three cameras in the studio, while an educator in the control room takes care of choosing the best shot on a computer, which she sends live to the televisions.
Her colleague, Nathalie Nace, handles the sound. A very different role from her daily work, playing with the children. But "it's important for the children. It allows them to stay connected to the real world," she says.
The adventure is set to continue, with the studio having been integrated into the plans for the future CHRU, which is expected to be completed in 2032.
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