Effectiveness of Medical Play on the Reduction of Fear in Children Aged 4 - 8 Years Undergoing Hospital Procedures in Selected Hospitals at Mangalore

Play is a natural auto-therapeutic measure which helps the child to learn and release oneself from defeat, suffering and frustrations. In the hospital, play is believed to be a method through which the child can ventilate anxiety, play out the stressful situations experienced and thereby relieve fears and anxieties. Medical play is a type of therapeutic play that involves allowing the child to explore real medical equipment thereby allowing them to work out their feelings associated with medical or nursing procedures in a non threatening way. This study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of Medical play on the reduction of fear in children aged 4 - 8 years undergoing hospital procedures. An evaluative approach with Post test Only Control Group design was used for the study. 40 subjects were selected using purposive sampling who were then randomly assigned to experimental and control group by lottery method. The experimental group received Medical play at the procedure room before and during the hospital procedure along with the simple explanation and the control group received routine explanation. The level of fear was observed during the hospital procedure using a Behavioural Observation Checklist. The collected data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. A significant difference between the mean fear scores of the experimental group and the control group was found (t38= 2.02, p<0.05). The study findings suggested a positive effect of Medical play in reduction of fear in children aged 4–8 years undergoing hospital procedures. Thus, Medical play can be incorporated into routine hospital care to help reduce hospital related fear and help child to cope with their hospital experience.