Nurse's part in free time activities and games for children that are hospitalized at small hospitals.

The social development of last decades brings about rapid changes, affecting also medicine and nursing. It also contributed to a positive shift, so a hospitalization of a child does not necessarily mean breaking bonds with its parents, siblings, and the broader family. Yet, a nurse remains an irreplaceable link in the process of child's treatment. It is a nurse who spends most of the time with the child during a hospitalization. A nurse has therefore a great potential of influencing child's adaptation to the hospitalization either in a positive or a negative way. Regardless of health or illness, a child retains a need of play activities. A play is an important healing component, it improves emotional condition, facilitates an adaptation to a changed health situation and enables saturation for activities the disease makes difficult or impossible. This diploma thesis aimed to analyze how spare time and play activities are ensured in small hospitals, regarding personnel, time and material. The author also set the task of finding out what importance the nurses give to their own role in the educational process. The research was conducted in two ways. The qualitative part contains interviews with children of primary school age who answered questions about what they wanted and what children hospitalized in small hospitals generally miss. Hypotheses were subsequently formed according to results of this part. These hypotheses were then tested by a quantitative research. The research group for the quantitative research were nurses working in pediatric departments of hospitals in the regions of Plzen, Karlovy Vary and Central Bohemia. The research shows that many pediatric departments of small and medium-sized hospitals have to deal with nurses' time troubles and with an insufficient staffing in order to fill meaningfully and effectively the child patients' spare time. The results of this research will be used as a platform for improvement of hospitalized children's conditions in one particular department