title: Speaking about emotional events in hospital: the role of health-care professionals in children emotional experiences.
abstract: This paper presents a qualitative study aimed at exploring the role of health-care professionals in hospitalized children's emotional experiences. A total of 27 children and adolescents from ages 6 to 15 years admitted to the Pediatric Hematology and Oncology ward of an Italian hospital participated in the study. Each participant was asked to talk about an emotional experience of happiness, anger, sadness and fear, felt in the presence of a doctor or nurse on the ward. The emotional tales were coded and analyzed qualitatively. The results showed that all the emotions considered were experienced when the staff was present, nurses in particular. Doctors and nurses played a role of active participants, encouraging children's emotions, especially for happy events. More research is needed to clarify the role of the staff in supporting children to cope with negative emotions.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Paola
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Corsano
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Ada
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cigala
authors.affiliation: University of Verona, Italy marinella.majorano@univr.it.
authors.forename: Marinella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Majorano
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vignola
authors.affiliation: University of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Josè
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Nuzzo
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cardinale
authors.affiliation: University Hospital of Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Izzi
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002673:Child, Hospitalized / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D016522:Oncology Service, Hospital; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D036301:Qualitative Research
keywords: Children’s participation; nurse–child interaction; nurse–patient relationship