title: Needs and expectations of adolescent in-patients: the experience of Gaslini Children's Hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Adolescents affected by a severe disease who undergo high-risk treatment may experience stress, pain, extreme frustration, depression, and anger. In this large spectrum of emotions, several situations must be considered carefully. To improve coping and quality of services offered to adolescents in paediatric hospitals, we elaborated a semi-structured interview and a short questionnaire (Quality of life-adolescent-Istituto Giannina Gaslini, QoL-adol-IGG scale) to investigate the quality of life, the needs and expectations of adolescent in-patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study sample includes 117 in-patients aged between 10 and 20 years coming from several Italian regions who were admitted to the G. Gaslini Research Children's Hospital for a period of 10 days or more, regardless of the disease. The QoL-adol-IGG scale was administered - after obtaining informed consent from the children and their parents - in one single encounter by trained psychologist. The distribution of the answers was evaluated after stratification by patient's age, gender, area of residence, and clinical diagnosis. Continuous data were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis, while the χ2-test was used for categorical data.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seventy-two percent had difficulty practicing normal daily activities during their stay in the hospital, not only because of the disease (40%), but also because of the poor organization within the hospital, the lack of proposals/activities and space for spare time, and the limited access to technologies. Adolescents ≥15 years were more frequently dissatisfied than youngsters concerning the access to Internet and other technologies, the possibility to make new friends and to take part in social activities.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results of this study, which evaluated the hospital's organization, but also psychological functioning in a representative sample of patients, may contribute to optimize internal procedures of clinical departments where adolescent in-patients are present, on the basis of their requests and taking into account their age.
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Massimo
authors.forename: Nicoletta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rossoni
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mattei
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bonassi
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Caprino
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000523:psychology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006776:Hospitals, Pediatric / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients / Q000523:psychology*; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D007558:Italy; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D012931:Social Environment; D061108:Social Media / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000600:supply & distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult