Factors in reducing children's anxiety about clinic visits.

Abstract

SINCE a child's fears about an impending clinic visit may impede diagnosis of his case and treatment, the source of such fears is a matter of serious concern to physicians, nurses, other health workers, and parents. When a child patient comes to the pediatric clinic, he enters a world of large esoteric instruments and unknown procedures. Some physicians and nurses have expressed the belief that the informed child who knows what will likely be done to him will cooperate better (1, 2). Physiological measurements and examinations performed on a cooperative child will presumably be more accurate than those performed on a noncooperative one (3); moreover, the informed child should suffer fewer emotional aftereffects (4). Physicians and nurses holding these views therefore advocate giving the child patient prior information about any impending medical and surgical events to alleviate his apprehensions about them. In practice, however, many physicians and nurses have reported that telling a child he is about to undergo some medical procedure-for