The Little Journey app has been designed by healthcare professionals, children and their parents for the sole purpose of improving how we provide medical information to families about hospital. It was created with the aim of reducing any anxiety you or your child may have, by familiarising you with what may happen and the team looking after you. Information is delivered to children and their parents based on the findings of research studies performed in the UK and abroad.

The Little Journey app can be tailored to individual hospitals, meaning that you and your child can explore the exact rooms they’ll visit on the day of their procedure, from the comfort of your own home. With storylines, animations and information designed for different age groups, we aim to engage and inform your child about hospital in a fun and interactive way.

We also provide bite size pieces of information to you, the parents and carers, that are delivered both before and after hospital. We hope this helps support you throughout your whole hospital experience and helps you talk with your child about what is happening. We’ve also included checklists, a notification-based system and questionnaires to help us understand you and your child’s needs, to help improve your hospital experience.

If you would like to get involved, we are always looking for people to help design and develop new elements to the Little Journey application. We currently have the following community groups providing feedback and support:

1. Healthcare Professionals within the NHS
2. Healthcare Professionals outside of the NHS
3. Young children aged 3-7
4. Young children aged 8-12
5. Parents of children going for surgery

To get involved, please use the contact form on this website, or email hello@littlejourney.health

Previously, any child or adult coming for an operation would have to self-isolate for up to 14 days before their operation.

Self-isolating means that the child and accompanying adult would need to stay at home and avoid any face to face interactions, including going to school or work and seeing friends. However, new guidance suggests that families don’t need to routinely isolate before their operation, unless told otherwise by the hospital beforehand. In addition, you also don’t have to isolate after your operation, just continue with social distancing and washing your hands regularly with soap and water.

Viruses are a type of germ that can cause infections. There are many different types of viruses including the common cold, bronchiolitis and tonsillitis. Each virus spreads from one person to another in different ways and leads to symptoms specific to that virus.

Coronavirus is a type of virus. The main way it spreads is from cough and sneeze droplets which are then either breathed in or land on surfaces which someone else touches. The most common symptoms of coronavirus are:
– A new continuous cough this means coughing a lot, for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours
– A high temperature
– A loss of, or change to, your sense of taste or smell.

Some people also experience muscles aches, tiredness and shortness of breath.

To stay safe from Coronavirus, we can do three key things:
1. Wear a face covering in public places like public transport, hospitals and shops
2. Wash your hands regularly with soap and water
3. Maintain social distancing: Try to stay two metres apart from people outside your household at any time.

Coronavirus has changed the process of having an operation greatly: from what staff wear to the areas they travel through on the day and the need to have a COVID screening swab before the operation. Even if you’ve had elective surgery before yourself, or been with a child having surgery, please read the following information articles to help prepare you.

The past few months have been extremely challenging for everyone. There has been a huge amount of work and changes made to ensure the NHS is able to continue safely caring for patients of all ages. A big change in recent months has been in the reduction in planned surgery being performed while infection levels in the community remained high. This has meant that many children and adults have had to wait longer than planned for their operation. After the initial rise in cases, infections levels dropped meaning it was safe enough for children to start having planned day case surgery again. This remains the case at present, but infection levels are being carefully monitored.

To help keep everyone safe, several steps have been put in place to reduce the risk of catching coronavirus while in hospital. Hospital staff will all follow certain infection control measures, like wearing a face mask when they’re looking after you. Just like everywhere else, there are key things that you can do to help protect yourselves:

1. Washing your hands with soap and water regularly, but especially when you enter or leave each hospital area.
2. Maintain social distancing as best as possible.
3. Wear a face covering.

To find out how to assemble a VR headset, you can try watching our tutorial video here: https://youtu.be/aK7qaun58yQ