Psychological preparation program to hospitalization Child

The objectives of psychological preparation programs to hospitalization are:

Short-term objectives:

1. Prevent or reduce anxiety, pain, and discomfort, providing information to child.2. Encourage emocional.3 expression. Facilitate cooperation and participation in curas.4. Establishing a relationship of trust between the child and health professionals, informing padres.5. Speed ​​recovery.

Long term objectives:

1. Increase ability to cope with experiencia.2. Improve autocontrol.3. Promote positive attitudes towards sanitarios.4 care. Minimize the potentially destructive effects of hospitalization on normal developmental processes.

Separation from parents.

In most cases, it is ideal that a parent accompany the child during hospitalization as long as possible. However, the child's needs must be carefully balanced with the needs of the family. Some parents, for example, should be encouraged to leave the hospital in order to meet their other children and their own emotional and physical needs. Numerous studies have proven the benefits of having parents present during painful medical procedures (although its presence may also increase the anxiety of the child when the parent is particularly anxious).

The paternal presence can also be helpful at other times, as if derived from a voluntary to anestesia.Mientras the staff encourages the participation of parents in the daily care of the child, should foster relationships with parents who do not are competitive.

Anticipatory guidance:

1. To facilitate effective preparation of children for the experience of hospitalization, it is useful to know the strengths and vulnerabilities of parents and children that affect the response to experience.

2. Children should be prepared prior to a scheduled hospital. However, when it is less clear. Indeed, age and personality of the child should be considered. For example, a preschooler or anxious you should contact an interval of only 2-3 days between preparation and procedure, because longer periods of time increases stress.

3. In the case of surgery, children need to know that the operation itself is not painful. Should be told what to expect postoperatively. This means that if you find a Foley catheter or a chest tube in place for when they wake up, it should be warned beforehand. They should be told they will have to endure some discomfort after surgery, but should be reassured that will be given an effective medication to relieve pain.

Continuity of care:

1. Coping with hospitalization. Many staff members of hospitals unnecessarily exacerbate anxiety in patients. The collaboration of a nurse and a primary care physician allows the child to develop a relationship with the staff characterized by predictable and confident. Other techniques must be used to minimize disturbance of the customs of the child. These include the use of transitional objects (such as blanket or favorite toy) or older children the use of supervised school programs in the living room. Ideally these services should be integrated into a comprehensive program of care for the child's life in the hospital, which is designed to make it easier to deal with every step of the experience of hospitalization.

2. Health personnel. Staff should be trained to integrate into a complacent and socially interactive game instead of a game interrupted intrusive relationship. This game should be oriented according to the personal needs of the child. Some hospitalized children are passive and listless or irritable, and therefore less competent to interact with people caring for you, in the form of meaningful interaction. These children require extra effort by staff to meet their emotional needs. Other patients are savvy and adorable, and soon become the favorite children of hospital staff. These children are exposed inadvertently to be considered as pets, with frequent interactions, and highly challenging brief that do not facilitate healthy relationships. Without continuity, it is difficult for staff to understand the needs of a particular child. A program of participation of grandparents can be helpful in this regard.

3. Daily routine. Children's Day in hospital should be as structured as possible, with medical treatments grouped together to provide longer periods of uninterrupted time for games or napping.

Peterson and Mori (1988) distinguish three types of preparation for hospitalization:

a) Preparation for potential future hospitalizations. The goal of these programs is to prepare children in advance about the possibility that emergency room admissions, for example a traffic accident situation in which there is no time to carry out an appropriate preparatory action.

b) Preparation of pediatric patients will be subjected in the hospital nonsurgical medical procedures such as injections, blood samples removed from molds, caterizaciones cardiac, spinal taps, bone marrow aspirations, hydrotherapy for burns, etc.., or who are admitted for nonoperative management of their disease as severe asthma attacks, pictures of dehydration, seizures, etc..

c) Preparation of pediatric patients hospitalized for surgery. Most preparation programs to hospitalization applies in cases of elective surgery, which allows to prepare children to face the operation will suffer. Since the late sixties and especially from the seventies, has developed a growing interest in studying various forms of intervention to reduce the stress of hospitalization.

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