Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the present situation of pediatric nurses' recognition and practice about five stages of psychological preparation for pediatric patients. From May to July 2010 we conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey of nurses working for children's wards, pediatric wards, mixed wards for pediatric and adult patients, and pediatric outpatient clinics in general hospitals and children's hospitals. 207 questionnaires were returned (response rate 36.1%), among which 171 were valid. Questionnaire items were composed of nurses' basic attributes, items on nurses' psychological preparation, and nurses' recognition and practice about fives stages of psychological preparation. Spearman's rank-order correlation was used for analyzing the relationship between their recognition and practice. The analysis revealed that nurses' levels of recognition on psychological preparation and of practice frequency were varied across children's age-class and survey items. Yet, the level of practice frequency tended to be lower than the level of recognition on the whole. It also showed that there was no correlation between recognition and practice from the first stage to the third stage of preparation in many items. We consider that it is necessary for pediatric nurses to practice psychological preparation for pediatric patients on all stages by focusing on their prehospital involvement and practice on preparatory stage for the stay at the hospital, treatment, and examination.
