My friend and former colleague Jean Cleary, who has died aged 88, was a pioneering researcher into the treatment of children in hospital. Her work over four decades helped to switch the focus of care towards the needs of the child rather than the priorities of the medical profession.
In the 1960s she was one of the key researchers in the influential Children in Hospital team, led by the sociologist Margaret Stacey, at Swansea University. At the time the sole objective of admitting a child to hospital was to treat the illness; some children were separated from their parents, families, friends and schools for many months. Concern about the consequences of this for the broader wellbeing of the child had been mounting and, in response, the Ministry of Health agreed to fund research into the issue.
The final report of the study documented in detail the impact of hospitalisation on children, revealing how, for the majority, it was a negative experience. As a result of the study, it became widely recognised and accepted that the active involvement of parents in the daily care of sick children was crucial.
When the Medical Sociology Research Centre was launched in Swansea in 1972, Jean collaborated on studies of other aspects of hospital life, including the employment of playleaders on children’s wards. Later she studied the experiences of first-time mothers, and then, with funding from the Nuffield Foundation, looked at the effects of a project in which, through nurse training, parents became actively involved in the care of their children in hospital.
Jean was born in Hackney, north London, to Frederick Pruden, who collected money from automatic weighing machines, and his wife, Martha (nee McGookin). As a teenager she was evacuated to Welwyn Garden City, in Hertfordshire, and then she studied anthropology at University College London.
In 1949 she took up a research post at Swansea University, where her set of friends included the writer Kingsley Amis, then a lecturer in English. Unbelievably, or so it seems in 2016, Jean was required by the university to give up her job when she married Esmond Cleary, a lecturer in economics. In the 60s, however, she returned to university research to join the Children in Hospital team.
She was a generous colleague, and was clear sighted and objective when advising others. A team player, she rarely sought the limelight of publication and public speaking, although in 1992 she did write a book based on her experiences, Caring for Children in Hospital: Parents and Nurses in Partnership.
Jean gained a wide knowledge of the NHS and when she retired in 1991 she joined the Swansea community health council, working unstintingly as its chair.
Esmond, and their daughter, Alison, predeceased her. She is survived by their son, Rob.
Jean Cleary obituary
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