["It feels like a hedgehog quill sticking in my foot...". School-aged children's experience of pain in the hospital].

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to describe school-aged children's experiences of pain in hospital. The view of pain as a complex phenomenon and the child's experience of pain considered from the physiological, psychological and experiential perspectives of child development made up the theoretical basis of the work. Data were collected from 20 school-aged children between 7 and 11 years of age who were hospitalized in the pediatric wards of the University Hospital. Each of the children wrote an essay on their experiences of pain in hospital and they were then interviewed on the basis of their essays. The data were analysed inductively using content analysis. On the basis of the analysis, the situations that caused pain to all children in hospital were procedures connected with treatment, and the children described their experiences of pain such as physiological and psychological feelings of pain. The children described physiological pain in a versatile manner (for example as pinching, stinging, aching) and were able to describe mainly the quality of pain. According to the children's descriptions, the psychological feelings of pain were unpleasant feelings, horror, anxiety and fear. The results of this research indicate school-aged children's ability to describe their own experiences of pain. This means that to assess and treat school-aged children's pain, we should listen to the child. Furthermore, painful situations cannot be eliminated in hospital, but we could pay attention to the methods that relieve child's pain and reduce psychological pain in the nursing practice.