Playfulness as a strategy in caring for hospitalized children

Abstract

To analyze the view of hospitalized children about playfulness as a strategy in care. Qualitative exploratory study of the participatory observational type realized at a university hospital in the Northeast. An adaptation of Trinca's drawing-history technique was used between September and October 2017, being the sample of nine school-age children and preadolescents. The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee. After thematic analysis, three categories were obtained, which highlighted the playroom as a supportive resource in the care of hospitalized children; showed the preferred approaches to play during hospitalization; and cited the professionals and their procedures. It was found that the way professionals approach directly influences the type of experience that will be a given procedure, and that playfulness is a fundamental strategy in hospital care, as it corroborates the improvement of the physical, psychological and emotional states of the child.