A Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Play Therapy on Pain among Hospitalized Preschool (3–6 years) Children during Intravenous Cannulation in Selected Hospital of Karnal City, Haryana

Abstract

Play is an essential part of a child's life & is an important aspect in fostering growth and development.4 Play is not a purposeless activity serving only to pass the childhood hours, it's a vital factor in intellectual, social, & emotional development of a child. This study has been conducted under the title “A Randomized Control Trial to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Play Therapy on Pain Among Hospitalized Preschool (3–6 years) Children During Intravenous Cannulation in Selected Hospital of Karnal City, Haryana.” A true experimental research design (Post test only design with control group) was used for the study. A total of 60 samples (30 samples in experimental group and 30 samples in control group) were selected randomly. The instrument used for the data collection was standardized Wong- Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale for measurement of pain intensity and self structured post- test observation checklist for assessing the hospitalized preschool children during intravenous cannulation and the technique used was observation method. Descriptive statistics (Frequency distribution, Standard deviation and mean) and inferential statistics (Independent't’ test, Chi-square test) were used for analyzing the data. The findings of the study revealed that the play therapy was effective for hospitalized preschool children during intravenous cannulation [‘t’ value 7.82, P<0.05]. There was no significant association between post-test level of pain with their selected demographic variables. Hence play therapy by means of laser top toys for hospitalized preschool children is very much effective.