The experience of school‐aged children with hospitalisation

Aims and objectives This study intended to contribute to the improvement of nursing care for both children and their parents and aimed to identify the best and worst experiences of school‐aged children during hospitalisation. Background Child hospitalisation has traditionally been studied from the parent's perspective, but studies in which the child is the subject are scarce and mainly focus on to the hospitalisation experiences. Design A cross‐sectional, observational and descriptive exploratory design was used, and STROBE reporting guidelines were followed. Methods A paper survey was applied by the primary researcher within a 3 months period to 252 children. It presented two open‐ended statements: ‘In my opinion the best thing about the hospital is …’ and ‘In my opinion the worst thing about the hospital is…’. The study was submitted and approved by the national data protection commission and also by the ethics committees of each of the six institutions where the study was undertaken. Informed consent was also obtained from children and parents. Results Answers were analysed through content analysis. Five categories were identified for each of the open‐ended statements. Children identified ‘people’, ‘physical environment’, ‘activities’, ‘outcomes’ and ‘food’ as best experiences. The worst experiences included: ‘feelings’, ‘activities’, ‘food’, ‘environment’ and ‘outcomes’. Conclusions The results allowed the identification of the children's most valued aspects of hospitalisation. Relevance to Clinical Practice The results should be considered by healthcare professionals in order to make the hospitalisation experience more positive from the perspective of the school‐aged children.