Steph Beddis

I am a nurse in the Hutt Hospital Emergency Department with a special interest in children’s health. For a long time now I have made available activities, toys and rewards for bravery when sick or injured children visited our department. I could see how important play therapy was to their development and how it helps children cope better with stressful and painful situations. Based on this, I completed a ‘Distraction Therapy’ project and was nominated by my peers for the ‘New Zealand’s Hardest Working Nurse’ competition, set up by Gareth Morgan. Imagine my surprise when I won the $10,000 prize money! I decided to spend it creating a unique distraction therapy environment in our new emergency department, now known as The Tree Hutt.