Abstract
The purpose of this study was to identify what preschoolers expressed and the meaning of those expressions when they are going through minor surgery. Leininger's ethnonursing method was used. Nine children were selected as the key informants. Eighteen general informants were selected ; fourteen nurses and four mothers of some of the children. From the data analysis, five themes were discovered.
Theme 1: Children do their best when they understand the explanation of the operation before it is performed.
Theme 2: When children are faced with a situation they do not get an explanation before or after the operation and no explanation is added alone the way, it is difficult for them to accept the situation and they feel irritated.
Theme 3: When children awake from anesthesia and returned to their rooms, nurses and mothers consider the operation to be finished. However, for children, the operation is not over since they must continue to do their best to deal with pain and intravenous injection drips.
Theme 4: Children cannot receive consistent support from their mother and nurses because mothers and nurses have had difficulty to understand the meaning of the childrens' behavior before and after operations.
Theme 5: If children were told that the beds were theirs when they were hospitalized, the beds become their base during hospitalization.
