ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The study explored children's views of hospitalization through their own voices. METHOD: In this secondary analysis, 93 children aged 5 to 9 years told stories about hospitalization using a set of drawings of children in the hospital. Children were recruited in the hospital and in the community. Themes were identified through qualitative analysis. RESULTS: Children's stories focused on being alone and feeling scared, mad, and sad. These children wanted protection. Children in the stories were not always facing scary events. They were simply not at home and feeling bored, lonely, and sad. They wanted companions. Children displayed awareness of both good and bad outcomes. The hospital was a unique environment that could be fun as well as threatening. DISCUSSION: Children's views of hospitalization were not invariably negative. The themes of hospitalized and never-hospitalized children were different only in degree of detail.
