The Relationship Between Therapeutic Communication and Level of Anxiety Among Hospitalized Preschool Children

Hospitalization is admission to hospital, either planned or due to unexpected health emergency. In Indonesia, the percentage of preschoolers being hospitalized in 2014 was 15.26%. Hospitalization causes anxiety reactions in children. Therapeutic communication is one solution that nurses can do to reduce anxiety and stress to hospitalized children. The therapeutic communication focused on healing patients, and it was a professional communication conducted by nurses. This research aims to determine the relationship between therapeutic communication and level of anxiety caused by hospitalization in children aged 3-6 years. Cross-sectional studies were applied to the 30 respondents obtained from quota sampling. The data was collected using questionnaires. The valid criteria results using Pearson product moment formula was defined if the value of r count ranged from 0.407-0.718, and the reliability test used Cronbach's alpha of value 0.927. The results showed that the therapeutic communication of nurses was fair (60%) and the category of patients' anxiety was severe (53.3%). Chi-square test was used at a significance level of 0.05. A p-value of 0.016 was obtained, indicating significant relationship between the therapeutic communication of nurses and the level of anxiety among hospitalized children. Conclusion: More therapeutic communication was needed, especially in communicating medical information before medical treatment. To improve therapeutic communication skills, nurses should be encouraged to participate in therapeutic communication training