Children

1
Childrens perceptions of hospitalisation

• Theresa Pengelly
• Senior Lecturer in Child Health
• University of Worcester
• t.pengelly_at_worc.ac.uk

2
Why do we need to know?

• Traditionally children have been regarded
• as lacking the social and cognitive
• competence to make informed decisions
• about their lives
• Coad and Houston( 2006)

3
Why do we need to know?

• UN Convention Rights of Child (1989)
• Children Act (1989 2004)
• NHS Plan (2000)
• National Service Framework
• for Children, Young People and Maternity
  Services(2004)
• Every Child Matters (2004)

4
Gaining the childs viewpointof the ideal
qualities of a child health nurse

• Six children age 8 10 years
• Recent surgical experience (in patient)
• No significant previous healthcare
• experience
• Aim was to contribute towards a more
• balanced representation (Coad Houston
• 2006)

5
Research Question

• What are the ideal qualities of a child
• health nurse?
• Qualitative Approach
• Phenomenology
• Bracketing

6
Data Collection

• Sample six children age 8-10 yrs who had
  surgery
• Recruited from Ward
• Childs Home
• Draw and Write and Semi Structured Interviews
• Pilot Study ( Allmark 2002)

7
Ethical Issues

• Ethical and RD approval
• Informed Consent
• Child and Parent Information Sheets
• Use of Stickers and Certificates( Laws et
• 
  al 2003)
• Thank you letters child and parent

8
Draw and Write technique

• The child is asked to draw a picture related to a
  specific topic with either the child or
  researcher writing down specific ideas(Bradding
  and Horstman 1999)
• Topic The ideal child health nurse
• Limitations (Backett-Milburn,McKie 1999)

9
Data Analysis

• Thematic analysis
• Modified version of Van Kaam(1966)
• Drawings described
• Use of data as theme titles(Miller 2003)

10
Results- Seven Themes

• They say really nice things (6)
• Happy (5)
• Comes quickly(3)
• Asked what food or drink I wanted (3)
• Special(3)
• Beautiful (1)
• Polite (1)

11
They say really nice things

• She asked if I wanted to her to come
• down with me and I said yes and she
• said to look at the posters , they are
• really cool arent they and I said yeah
• it actually had all my favourite cartoons
• and all of that Child 1(f 9 years)

12
Happy

• They tried to make me laugh and one
• nurse put a plaster on my teddy
• just to make me happy
• ( Child 3 m 10 years)

13
Comes Quickly

• When I ask for tablets, when my leg is hurting
  they get it right away Child 4
• ( f 10 years)

14
Asks what food and drink I wanted

• I told my Mum that I was hungry and thirsty so
  the nurse came in to give me some pain relief and
  Mum asked for some crisps and a drink and I had
  cheese and onion flavour and I really thought
  that
• was good ( child 1 f 9years)

15
Special

• She was special------ when we went in
• she was there and she was there nearly
• all the time , and it felt really good
• Child 6(m 8 years)

16
Beautiful

• Cos , she had nice hair and she always went to me
  and beautiful means nice, kind, fancy and
  beautiful
• Child 6 (m 8 years)

17
Polite

• Like when you pressed the button again,
• they were real kind as well, they talked
• so polite child 5 (m 10 years)

18
Implications for Practice

• Each child is an individual so there
• is not a blueprint for a child health nurses
• behaviour/attitude
• Findings indicate that we need to be aware of
  the impact of behaviour, appearance and
  attitudes when caring for a child

19
Ideas for further development

• To focus further research on exploring
• the childs viewpoint of how child health
• professionals gain a rapport with a child.
• having a good connection
• Fleitas (1997)