The fears of children in pediatric emergency context: nurse as emotional manager

Abstract

The health-disease processes in childhood are inevitably characterized by fearful experiences. The study of this problem aims to clarify the performance of the emotional labor of nurses, focusing on the analysis of the fears (normal/developmental) of children aged 6 to 12 years, in pediatric emergency rooms. The choice of a quantitative methodology led to the application of a questionnaire to a sample of 82 children, intentionally selected. Concerning the results, it should be noted that children perceive fear as a threat, they are afraid of not having information about the prognosis and hospitalization, and they are afraid of the nurses and doctors. Most children are afraid of the unknown. Their most pronounced fears are associated with pain, injections and clinical analyses. The nurses help them manage fears (and in this perspective, are emotional managers) not only through comforting, calming, and recreational strategies such as distraction, game, and music but also through affection, caresses, sympathy, smiles, trust, positivity, empathic understanding and humour. The nurses also enable the involvement and presence of parents in a process of humanized and affectional care, with interventions that minimize discomfort and physical and emotional suffering. Thus, the use of strategies of humanization and non-traumatic care, which are enrolled in the philosophy of family-centered care, is highlighted.