Maternal-child nursing journal
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Matern Child Nurs J · Jan 1984
ReviewA review of current approaches used to help children and parents cope with health care procedures.
There has been a long-standing belief that children and parents require preparation and support in the event of hospitalization. Programs that prepare children for hospitalization are designed to inform the child about what will happen and to familiarize the child with his environment. Although these programs provide only general information, they do impact upon the way a child can cope with specific procedures. ⋯ The effectiveness of these techniques, who can best use them, and when they should be used are questions still to be answered. The varying degrees of methodological rigor in present studies point to a need for further research. One cannot definitively state how closely nursing practice reflects available research findings as outlined in this article.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)