Nursing Procedures and Stress: A Study of Hospitalized Children Aged 6-10

Background Every child is suffering with stress after hospitalization, but certain events at hospital may lead to excessive stress. To understand those stressors, we have taken an aspect to focus that is nursing procedures related stress. Objectives To measure the stress level of hospitalised children related to selected nursing procedures. Materials and method 400 hospitalised children were part of this descriptive survey, aged between 6-10 years. By using convenient sampling method children were selected for the study. 4 nursing procedures were selected for measurement of stress & to measure stress Children’s Emotional Manifestation Scale (CEMS) was used. Result Results of the study shows that, majority of 69.5% children had high stress, 12.5% were having very high stress and 16% were having average level of stress; while only 1.25% & 0.75% children reported they have low stress & very low stress respectively, none of the child felt stress-free about nursing procedures. Conclusion Children are suffering with stress during hospital stay but simultaneously they are more stressed about nursing procedures. Action plan has to be made to reduce stress level of children to make them comfortable.