School-aged children’s feelings about planned surgery during a short-term stay in hospital

Abstract

 The purpose of this study was to find out how school-aged children (hereinafter simply “children”) feel about receiving planned surgery during a short-term stay in hospital. Thirteen children agreed to participate in the study. They were given a semistructured interview and their answers were qualitatively and descriptively analyzed.

 Six categories were created for the results: “I cannot face having an operation in hospital”, “Having an operation in hospital is a problem that I want to face down myself”, “Having an operation in hospital feels like too much to bear”, “People looked after me while I was in hospital”, “It was tough, but I put my mind to it so I feel positive about my operation in hospital” and “When I get out of hospital, I’ll do what I can to adjust to the changes in my life”.

 When faced with a short hospital stay and a planned operation, the children focused on doing what they could and moving forward despite their difficult situation. From this, it can be concluded that nurses’ role is to provide support that makes children feel like they have grown from having an operation in hospital.