Nebraska Hospital Welcomes 700 Kindergartners for 53rd Year

Seven hundred kindergartners walked through the doors of CHI Health Good Samaritan in Kearney, Nebraska this week, not as patients, but as curious learners discovering that hospitals aren't so scary after all.

For the 53rd consecutive year, the hospital opened its doors to five and six-year-olds from 19 area elementary schools. The annual Kindergarten Days event transforms potentially frightening medical spaces into welcoming classrooms where children learn exactly what happens during emergency visits.

The tour starts with a safety video before students explore the X-ray room, patient rooms, the emergency department, and even climb inside a real ambulance. Doctors and pediatricians explain each step, showing kids the tools and machines that help people heal.

Park Elementary School teacher Danica Land hopes her students carry these lessons home. "Hopefully they can tell their parents about their trip and then also maybe even think about the future, so maybe we'll have some future nurses and doctors," she said.

That's exactly what Kimber Bonner, the hospital's vice president of patient care services, is counting on. After 28 years at Good Samaritan, she's watched the program evolve into something special.

"There's going to be needs for many years to come," Bonner explained. "Really getting to them when they're really young might spark an interest."

The Ripple Effect

The impact reaches far beyond a single field trip. Over five decades, thousands of children have walked these halls, learning that the people in scrubs and white coats are just humans trying to help.

Some of those early visitors now work at the hospital themselves. Others have brought their own children through the same doors, creating a beautiful cycle of familiarity and trust.

The program addresses two critical needs at once. It eases childhood anxiety about medical care while planting seeds for future healthcare careers in a field that desperately needs workers.

"I think hopefully they understand that we're humans like everybody else," Bonner said. "Even though it might be a scary situation, we're here to help and really put them at ease whether they're the patient or it's their parents that are maybe the patients."

For these 700 kindergartners, the emergency room is no longer an unknown, scary place but somewhere friendly faces work to make people better.