effect of play in reducing procedure pain in hospitalized Egyptian and omani children

This study was designed to determine if a difference existed in children's physiologic and psychological response to painful procedures for two groups of hospitalized children in Egypt and Sultanate of Oman. A pretest/post-test factorial design was used. A total of one hundred hospitalized children [fifty Egyptians and fifty Omanies] were randomly assigned to study group or control group. Two different age groups were also included; ten children [four-seven years] and fifteen older children [eight-twelve years]. Children in the study group participated in two periods of planned age-appropriate play before and after the painful procedure, while the control group exposed to the regular ward stimuli. Children's physiological and psychological responses to painful procedures was determined by obtaining their heart rates and their ratings on age-appropriate pain procedures was determined by obtaining their heart rates and their ratings on age-appropriate pain assessment tools. Comparison between means and ANCOVA were performed to test the research hypotheses in relation to treatment groups, age group and culture

Children's conceptions of their illnesses

Conceptions of illness of 40 children aged from five to twelve years were explored, using a semistructured interview guide. Areas of interest included children's conceptions of causality of illness, children's perceptions of intent of treatment, and children's reaction to their hospital experience. Subjects' verbal responses to 30 questions were obtained, summarized, and grouped to compare conceptions according to age [younger and older] as well as sex [boys and girls]. There was statistically significant difference for age in relation to causality of illness. The majority had favorable reaction to their hospital experiences, nurses, physicians and treatment. However, Chi-square revealed no significant differences by age or sex, except for children's reaction to nurses according to age. It is recommended that children's conceptions of illness should be taken into consideration in planning their medical and nursing care

Perceived uncertainty by parents of hospitalized child

This study aimed at measuring uncertainty as a major perceptual variable influencing parents experiences during their child's illness. The parents perception of uncertainty was measured by using a 31-item likert format scale composed of four factors [subscales] measuring the four dimensions of uncertainty: Ambiguity and lack of information and unpredictability. The data were collected over a four-month period pediatric nursing students or medical and surgical units. The person completed the scale was either a mother or a father [N= 82]. It was found that some factors of uncertainty had significant relationships with child's age, and education, and number of prior hospitalization. Uncertainty also had an inverse relationship with child's age. Further study is needed to examine the insignificant and unclear relationship using one diagnostic category of the sample