Children with chronic illnesses' perceptions of "play in hospital": A qualitative descriptive study

Abstract

It is widely accepted that hospitalization can influence the emotional, social, cognitive, and physical development of infants, children and youth. This is particularly true for children with chronic illnesses. Children report many negatives aspects of hospitalization, yet identify “play” and recreation as the best parts. Descriptions of play outside of hospital illustrate commonalities. However, children’s perceptions or description of “play in hospital” has yet to be reported. This manuscript based thesis outlines my conceptual framework for the study, background literature, the study’s methodology, a manuscript focused on the three arts-based data gathering activities used with hospitalized school-age children in the study, followed by a manuscript of the actual study and its findings. The thesis concludes with a synopsis of the findings, implications for practice and highlights areas for future research in the areas of arts-based data gathering activities with children and “play in hospital”.