Elizabeta Petrusheva or briefly nurse Betty is the best friend to children from the Pediatrics Ward. Even after 32 years of working with children, she has the same zeal and enthusiasm, and as it seems the restless childish spirit in the daily care for the youngest patients. She knows all the children’s songs and sings them with pleasure. And the children can not hide their sincere smile when her face appears on the door of the hospital room.

“I know the children’s world, and I’m glad to live in that pink world. I have always wanted to work with children, they are the purest and innocent beings. I want to live in their world and it is the only world I understand. The world of adults is complicated, while children’s is so pure and spontaneous”, says nurse Betty.

32 years of caring for sick children is just a proof that the work is not only an obligation, but first of all an unconditional love and devotion to the youngest patients.

-At the very beginning I had an offer to work at the Cardiology Department or at the Pediatrics Department, but I decided to work with children and I didn’t make a mistake. The last three years I work at Pediatrics Department of “Acibadem Sistina” and I am delighted that the children here really have wonderful conditions. Starting from the decorated rooms, to the accessories, the hygiene and highly educated team that is always with them.

You often sing to the children. Which songs the children like the most?

-“The cabbage has three hundred leaves”, “Nikola, Nikola” …. there are countless children’s songs, and I know quite a lot. And every day I learn new songs. If you know the world of children, then you should know all the things that make them happy. If a child likes some  song a lot, I try to learn it while he/she stays in the hospital. You should feel the children. That’s what I tell the young nurses I work with; you should know how to reach the children, to know what they want, to please them.

You have a special access toward the mothers who often stay with the children?

The mothers are very anxious in the first place because of the child condition. If they encounter an unkind receipt it makes them even more insecure and anxious. You need to give them support, so they could have more self-confidence and trust in the very institution, in me as a nurse who will work with the child and to adjust and informed them gradually about everything that need to be done with the child. Step by step I explain to the mothers everything I am going to do with their child. The mother is the most important for the child; if she is calm she will transmit it to the child, and vice versa. Anxious mothers disturb the child too.

How difficult is to give a therapy to young children?

Yes, it’s difficult, not always everything goes so smoothly, but we are prepared and willing to work with the youngest patients. They cries, they are anxious, sick and with fever. Therefore I say the pediatrics is a specific work, and caring for the children requires a really great patience, understanding and indulgence. Besides singing to the children, if I see that someone is upset I take him/her by me, I walk with him/her to get acquainted with the surroundings, in order not to be afraid and to feel safe. The point is to see that there is nothing fearful, than I give them toys, we draw, color etc. Simply, we become best friends and it is a success. When the child let you in his/her world, then it is much easier to give him/her therapy, to make an inhalation, to inject an infusion.

At the end of the day, how much the work fulfills you?

At the most, it is the reason I work with children all these years. I have no problem at all to work with children. Children’s innocence and their beautiful smile give me strength to care for them every day. Since I work with a lot of love and I give a lot of love to the children, I know it is a mutual one.

About the colleagues and the teamwork, Betty says they are together a large and professional team with great experience in working with children. Working in highly professional conditions is a motive for all of them to prove themselves and to do their best because the children deserve the best care.