Although many hospitals offer a surgical preparation program to children and families,
minimal research has been conducted specifically on preparation by child life specialists.
The purpose of this double-blind intervention study was to determine if children prepared
for day surgery by a child life specialist exhibited less anxiety than those who received
routine standard of care. One hundred forty-two children, aged between 5 and 11 years
old, undergoing elective otolaryngology surgery completed the study. The “Child Drawing:
Hospital” instrument developed by Clatworthy, Simon, and Tiedeman [Clatworthy, S.,
Simon, K., & Tiedeman, M. E. (1999). Child Drawing: Hospital – An instrument designed
to measure the emotional status of hospitalized school-aged children. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 14, 2–9] was used to determine children's anxiety levels preintervention and postintervention.
Eighty children received formal preparation for their surgeries by a child life specialist
and 62 received no intervention. The data were analyzed using a repeated-measures
model with intervention, age, sex, and level of surgery for main effects. The anxiety
score change was significantly better for the patients in the child life intervention
group than for those in the nonintervention group, F(1,135) = 4.24, p = .04. The increase in anxiety scores in the nonintervention group suggests that
children could benefit from preoperative preparation. Health professionals, including
nurses, may impact children's abilities to cope with a surgical process. The information
in this study will be useful in deciding whether all children, not just those with
a perceived need, should be prepared prior to an elective day surgery.
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Journal of Pediatric Nursing: Nursing Care of Children and FamiliesAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- The process of parenting.Mayfield Publishing Co, Mountain View, CA1996
- Child drawing: Hospital—An instrument designed to measure the emotional status of hospitalized school-aged children.Journal of Pediatric Nursing. 1999; 14: 2-9
- Emotional reactions of surgical patients to hospitalization, anesthesia, and surgery.American Journal of Surgery. 1958; 96: 646-653
- Psychologic preparation program for children undergoing acute appendectomy.Pediatrics. 1988; 82: 30-36
- Preparing children and families psychologically for day surgery: An evaluation.Journal of Advanced Nursing. 1994; 19: 1057-1062
- Psychosocial care of children in hospitals: A clinical practice manual from the ACCH Child Life Research Project.Child Life Council, Inc, Rockville, MD1998
- Pre-operative psychological preparation for children undergoing ENT operations: A comparison of two methods.Paediatric Anaesthesia. 2000; 510: 477-486
- Behavior changes indication emotional trauma in tonsillectomized children.Pediatrics. 1953; 12: 23-28
- Psychological preparation of the parent and pediatric surgical patient.Anesthesiology Clinics of North America. 2002; 20: 69-88
- Pre-operative preparation in children: A cross-sectional study.Journal of Clinical Anesthesia. 1996; 8: 508-514
- Effects of surgery type and attention focus on children's coping.Nursing Research. 2000; 49: 245-252
- Children's preoperative coping and its effects on postoperative anxiety and return to normal activity.Nursing Research. 1996; 45: 141-147
- The psychology of coping: Issues of research and assessment.in: Coelho G. Hamburg D. Adams J. Coping and adaptation. Basic Books, New York1974
- Paediatric day surgery: Impact on Hong Kong Chinese children and their parents.Journal of Clinical Nursing. 2003; 12: 882-887
- Preparing children for day surgery.Children's Health Care. 1994; 23: 75-85
- The effects of a psychological preparation program on anxiety in children and adolescents undergoing gastrointestinal endoscopy.Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. 1998; 27: 161-165
- Paediatric pre-operative teaching: Effects at induction and post-operatively.Paediatric Anaesthesia. 1998; 8: 17-23
- Necessary considerations for surgery preparation: Age and previous experience.Psychosomatic Medicine. 1983; 45: 517-525
- Psychosocial predictors of children's post-operative pain.Clinical Nursing Research. 1998; 7 ([17 pp]): 275
- Effect of operative procedures on the emotional life of the child.American Journal of Diseases of Children. 1941; 62: 716-729
- Pre-operative preparation: Effects on immediate pre-operative behavior, post-operative behavior and recovery in children having same day surgery.Maternal-Child Nursing Journal. 1990; 19: 321-330
- Effects of psychological preparation on children hospitalized for dental operations.Pediatrics. 1983; 102: 634-638
- Preop visits—For the nurse–for the patient?.AORN Journal. 1972; 16: 75-81
- Anxiety responses of 5 to 11 year old children during and after hospitalization.Journal of Pediatric Nursing. 1990; 5: 334-343
Tsigounis, S. A. (1978). The relationship between parent–child perceptions of hospitalization and the child's subsequent psychological response. Dissertation Abstracts International 38 3915B. (University Microfilms No. 77-32253)
- The psychological responses of children to hospitalization and illness.Thomas Books, Springfield, MA1965
- Psychological preparation for surgical pediatric patients: The effect on children's and parents' stress responses and adjustments.Pediatrics. 1975; 56: 187-202
- Preparation for surgery and adjustment to hospitalization.Pediatric Surgical Nursing. 1994; 29: 655-669
Article info
Identification
Copyright
© 2006 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
