HOSPITALIZATION IN THE VIEW OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: FEELINGS AND EXPERIENCES LIVED THROUGH

Abstract

This qualitative study’s aim was to understand hospitalization through the eyes of the child and adolescent, observed through their feelings and experienced. It was undertaken with 8 participants, hospitalized in a pediatric unit in a public hospital in Fortaleza – Ceará in 2011, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews and cartoon-stories on the issue. The following categories emerged from analysis of the data: Hospital represented in physical structure and Meanings of hospitalization. Hospitalization is perceived as a stressful experience for children and adolescents, as it causes emotional harm, expressed as sadness, prison, missing home, lack of friends/siblings/parents, and the impossibility of playing. The findings permitted the discussion of the process of hospitalization based on theoretical assumptions of integrality and humanization of hospital care. It is concluded that there is a need to (re-)think the traditional model of care for hospitalized children and adolescents, in the interests of humanization of care.

Keywords

• Hospitalized child
• Pediatric nursing
• Humanization of care