Jakob Thestrup is a PhD fellow in medical education, specialising in paediatric communication and the use of play as a professional competence. His work examines how healthcare professionals can use playful and age-appropriate approaches to support children’s understanding and participation in hospital settings, drawing on research that includes children’s own perspectives on healthcare encounters. It is grounded in the principle that children have a right to be informed, heard, and involved in decisions affecting their treatment and care, and it seeks to translate these rights into everyday clinical practice.
His PhD centres on the development and evaluation of an educational programme on communication and play for paediatric healthcare professionals. The programme provides structured materials on age-appropriate communication across developmental stages and practical play-based strategies to support healthcare professionals in facilitating trust and participation. Its effectiveness is currently being evaluated in a randomised controlled trial involving 136 healthcare professionals from eleven different professions.