Hospital fear and coping strategies in hospitalized children: a review study

Introduction: Getting sick and being admitted to the hospital has a deep psychological impact on children. Onthe other hand, hospitalization in the boring environment of the hospital causes isolation and fear of hospitalizedchildren. The fear and anxiety of hospitalized children are effective in communicating with the nurse, lack ofcooperation, the formation of long-term fear of the nurse and many other cases. This research was done withthe aim of determining the level of fear and anxiety of hospitalized children and ways to deal with it.Methods: In this narrative review article, by searching in the reliable databases of Scopus, PubMed, SID, Wiley,Magiran Iranmedex using keywords fear, anxiety, child, hospitalization, play therapy without limitation in thetype of study in the time frame of ۱۲ Persian and English articles have been identified in recent years. Then, byreviewing all the texts of the articles, those that fit the topic and purpose of the study were used.Results: The biggest fear of hospitalized children is the fear of pain and the stressfulness of the hospitalenvironment, pain from injections and treatment procedures and medical staff. Finding new friends and the sameage, play therapy, using toys and dolls suitable for the age group of children, getting to know and explainingabout the treatment steps and changing the staff uniform to a happy color from fear and anxiety to some extent,effective in reducing this fear and anxiety.Conclusion: Since the main cause of children's fear is the hospital environment and unfamiliar treatmentprocedures, it is suggested to prepare children before and at the beginning of hospitalization. Also, with methodssuch as providing a playroom with equipment suitable for different ages and wearing colorful clothes by thepersonnel of children's departments, as non-drug and effective methods to reduce children's anxiety and fear.

کلیدواژه ها:

Fear ، anxiety ، child ، hospitalization ، play therapy