The Effect of Nursing Intervention by Giving Information and Distraction on Cardiac Preoperative Fear in Preschoolers

Abstract

Purpose: To compare cardiac preoperative fear in preschoolers receiving nursing intervention by giving information and distraction, and those receiving conventional nursing care.

Design: Quasi-experimental research

Methods: The Samples consisted of 60 preschoolers admitted to Chulalongkorn memorial hospital for a cardiac operation. The first 30 children were assigned to a control group and the latter 30 were assigned to an experimental group. Preschoolers in the control group received conventional preoperative nursing care, while those in the experiment group were prepared by concrete objective information and distraction. Data were collected by preschoolers’ cardiac preoperative fear observation scale. Its content validity was established by 5 experts and the content validity index (CVI) was 1. Its interrater reliability coefficient was .98. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and the independent t-test.

Result: Cardiac preoperative fear of preschoolers receiving nursing intervention by giving information and distraction was significantly lower than fear of the preschoolers receiving conventional nursing at a statistical level of .05.

Conclusion: The result of this study shows that nursing intervention by giving information and distraction reduces cardiac preoperative fear of preschoolers.