Fun in the sun: an outdoor program in a health care setting.

The Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa, Ontario, has had a supervised playground program for the past 6 years, which is available to inpatients, outpatients, and their visitors. This paper describes playground staff and volunteer prerequisites, the role of interdisciplinary involvement, equipment and materials, factors to consider when planning outdoor activities, and the activities found to be most useful. The authors' purpose is not to give the recipe for an ideal playground program, but rather to stimulate interest in the desirability of playground programs in health care settings through the description of one such facility.