Meet Paulina VCSIA- GLOBAL IMPACT 2024 Award winner! Paulina Pérez-Duarte Mendiola, MD, MSc, is a clinical paediatrician, medical anthropologist and final year PhD Candidate (PEDAL Hub & Sidney Sussex College). Her career has focused on improving the holistic outcomes of children’s health and addressing healthcare inequalities. Paulina has presented to conferences and audiences worldwide, and has published articles promoting the use of an anthropological approach to paediatric healthcare, hospitalised children’s human rights and the role of health play specialists.
Since starting her doctoral research at Cambridge in 2021, Paulina has launched the annual Semana JIM®, Play in Hospital Awareness Week in Mexico (Semana del Juego Intrahospitalario en México). Throughout the week, healthcare professionals join talks, discussions and activities that foster a ‘pro-play mindset’ and help them transform sick children’s hospital experiences using the power of play. As founder and director, Paulina has driven this vision and created these important virtual spaces for like-minded practitioners to come together, share their expertise and amplify the approach.
Beyond Mexico, Paulina has expanded Semana JIM® to reach and involve healthcare professionals in wider Spanish-speaking countries, such as Ecuador, Guatemala and Venezuela, and more recently even further afield, to include practitioners in France, Senegal and Singapore. Since 2021, professionals in 14 countries have participated in Semana JIM®, which now reaches a global community. This expansion reflects both the value of the issue, and the exceptional extent to which Paulina has pushed herself to raise its profile.
The success of Semana JIM® also reflects the depth of Paulina’s knowledge. As a paediatrician herself, she brings clinical expertise and an awareness of hospital processes that enable her to engage and inspire a range of medical personnel. By working with different professionals within healthcare systems, Paulina is helping to build a cadre of pro-play pioneers and advocates, and equip them with the knowledge, tools and language to effect change in their own hospitals, systems and healthcare settings.
You can follow her on social media through @paediatricianwithsign & @SemanaJim
More information about her work is available online: https://paulinaperezduarte.com/
