Preoperative information needs of children

Abstract

AbstractInformation seeking and receiving is the universally accepted right of children. When the children gets hospitalized and preparing for a surgery, it's the responsibility of the health care professionals to provide them with adequate information. Before giving the information it is essential to know what the children really wants to know. The main purpose of the study was to assess preoperative information needs of children undergoing surgery. With the non experimental research approach, a descriptive survey design was used in the study which was conducted in a selected hospital Mangaluru. Using non probability purposive sampling technique, 100 children of age 6-18 years were selected as study participants. The tool used were – the baseline proforma and the children's desire for preoperative information scale. The study results showed that majority of the children wanted to know the information regarding all the major happenings in their pre, intra and post operative events. Thus the study concludes that a structured preoperative teaching programme can be developed by the health care facility for the children undergoing surgery.