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Published on: January 27, 2010

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Therapeutic play intervention on children's perioperative anxiety, negative emotional manifestation and postoperative

Hong-Gu He1, Lixia Zhu, Sally Wai-Chi Chan

  • 1Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Journal of Advanced Nursing
|January 7, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Therapeutic play intervention effectively reduced negative emotional manifestations and postoperative pain in children undergoing surgery. This approach is beneficial for children facing inpatient elective surgery, improving their perioperative experience.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Surgery
  • Child Psychology
  • Pain Management

Background:

  • Children often experience anxiety, pain, and negative emotions during surgery.
  • Previous research on therapeutic play's effectiveness has yielded inconsistent results.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of therapeutic play intervention on perioperative anxiety, negative emotional manifestations, and postoperative pain in children undergoing elective inpatient surgery.

Main Methods:

  • A randomized controlled trial involving 95 children (47 control, 48 experimental).
  • The experimental group received a 1-hour therapeutic play intervention; the control group received routine care.
  • Measurements included state anxiety, negative emotional manifestations, and postoperative pain at baseline, day of surgery, and 24 hours post-surgery, analyzed using ANCOVA.

Main Results:

  • While state anxiety showed a time effect, no significant group or interaction effects were observed.
  • Children receiving therapeutic play had significantly lower negative emotional manifestations before anesthesia induction.
  • The experimental group reported significantly less postoperative pain compared to the control group.

Conclusions:

  • Therapeutic play intervention is effective in mitigating negative emotional manifestations before anesthesia and reducing postoperative pain in pediatric surgical patients.
  • The findings support the use of therapeutic play as a valuable intervention prior to elective inpatient surgery for children.
Abstract

Keywords:
anxietychildrennegative emotional manifestationnursingpostoperative paintherapeutic play

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