Abstract
The purpose of this study was to describe the nursing care for school aged children with developmental disabilities experiencing difficulty in social interaction hospitalized in a pediatric psychiatric closed unit. The study incorporated Leininger’s theory of the ethnonursing research method and used a qualitative design of observation-participation and interview data. Nine key informants included nursing staff at the pediatric psychiatric hospital. Seventeen general informants included six school aged children with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), six fathers and mothers, and five medical staff. Six main themes and one core theme emerged from the analysis of the data. The core theme was that nurses accepted children as they are and responded to their desire to relate with others, which is represented in closeness. The meaning of nursing care for them was that nurses supported them to be able to learn how to relate with others and restored their trust in adults and attachment. They became able to play with other children and express their thoughts to others through the nursing care. The findings suggest that it is necessary for nurses to understand the reasons and meaning of their closeness to identify their desire, and to respond to the desire to relate to others, which is manifested in closeness.
