Hardback Life: A Book Club Focused on Literature for Young People for Pediatric Hospital Staff

Objectives: Incorporating the literary arts through book clubs among health science students and clinicians has demonstrated changes in cultural perspective, improved communication, and impacted daily practice. However, few book clubs have been interdisciplinary or focused on literature for children and young adults. We sought to determine the feasibility of a recurring children’s and young adult literature book club for pediatric hospital staff by piloting the book club Hardback Life. With the success of our pilot phase, we now seek to examine the potential impact on participants’ comradery and empathy through piloting a book club and then designing and implementing a prospective observational study with mixed methods analysis of group data.

Methods: March 2020-Summer 2021 we facilitated four iterations of Hardback Life focused on developing organizational procedures and collecting post survey data from participants. In March 2022, we began recruiting all hospital staff for three groups: non-participants, readers, and reader-attendees (n=100). Non-participants will not read the book nor participate in a book club meeting. Readers will read the book but not participate in a book club meeting. Reader-attendees will read the book and participate in a book club meeting. Book clubs will be offered either online through WebEx software or in-person in accordance with the hospital’s evolving COVID-19 protocols.
From April 2022 - August 2022 we will run three iterations of the book club where readers and reader-attendees will be given a free copy of a pre-selected book for young people. Reader-attendees will also sign up to attend an hour-long book club facilitated by the co-primary investigators where they will participate in activities designed to promote reflection and discussion with colleagues.
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Results: Our pilot data indicated an increased interest and participation in Hardback Life. Participants expressed in post-survey data appreciation of the selected titles and the opportunity to connect with other staff members. For our research, we are collecting baseline demographics and use the Assessment Scale of the Work Environment-10 and Interpersonal Reactivity Scale as pre- and post-tests among all groups following each iteration of the book club. Descriptive statistics will be used to summarize participant characteristics and study measures. Repeated measures ANOVA will be performed to study the effect of group (non-participant, reader, reader-attendee) and time (pre/post-book club) on scores.