Effectiveness of therapeutic play in terms of anxiety and behavioral response among hospitalized preschool children in masonic hospital at Coimbatore

Children, especially younger ones, typically fear being separated from their parents during medical visits. This fear may be heightened when the child finds themselves in the strange environment of a treatment room surrounded by unfamiliar people and facing a possibly painful experience. Loss of autonomy and control may cause the young child a great deal of anxiety. Therapeutic play may help to reduce children stress. This play can help prepare children to face upcoming events, or it can provide catharsis by allowing children to express feelings and to reconcile, both cognitively and emotionally, painful or frightening events. Study was done to assess the effectiveness of therapeutic play in terms of anxiety and behavioral response among hospitalized preschool children in Masonic hospital at Coimbatore. The conceptual framework of the study was based on the modified Widenbach’s Selphing art of clinical nursing. The study design was one group pretest post test pre experimental design – non probability purposive sampling technique was used to select 60 samples for the study. The demographics variables are collected and pretest was conducted on the first day by using anxiety rating scale and behavioral response rating scale to assess the level of anxiety and behavioral response level. Immediately after the pretest therapeutic play was given for 30 minutes for the hospitalized preschool children. The therapeutic play was given for 2 times perday, on the next day assess the post test. The data gathered were analyzed employing descriptive and inferential statistics. There is significant difference between pretest and posttest anxiety score (‘t’ value = 18.9) and behavioral response (‘t’ value = 29.66). The result showed that therapeutic play to reduced anxiety and improved behavioral response among hospitalized preschool children