Suffering from a disease and subsequent hospitalization is a stressful and frustrating phenomenon. For a child it is biopsychosocially difficult and its development is negatively affected which oftentimes may cause further medical issues and the need for psychological and social intervention. In order to support the development of hospitalized children, there are hospital schools in every pediatric hospital. The schools employ qualified educators and teachers who follow the curricula implemented in regular schools. However, besides the academic part, children participate in extracurricular activities as well. Their instructors focus mainly on organizing games, artistic activities and looking after the appearance of the hospital ward. Considering the needs of sick children for individual social support, it becomes more and more worrying that the quality of involvement of pedagogues in the process of offering psychological support to the hospitalized child and its family is deteriorated. Many specialists stress that the involvement needs to be much greater than it actually is. This, however, calls for more self-awareness of the pedagogues who work in hospital schools of their own specialist knowledge, skills and competence. On one hand, they need to be willing to do that but on the other, there must be some decisions made by their supervisors. This calls for concrete systemic solutions and directives.

Key words: child, hospitalization, pedagogue, support.