The Hospitalized Child: Psychosocial Issues is a comprehensive,
abstracted bibliography focusing on the behavioral and developmental
consequences of short-term, long-term or recurrent hospitalization
during childhood and adolescence. The emphasis of this volume is on the
psychosocial issues related to the hospital experience/environ- ment,
rather than on adaptation to or coping with particular disease states or
terminal illness. Publications are included which identify potential
problems of hospitalization, coping mechanisms of patients, parents, and
staff, and possible solutions. For example, the articles covered in this
volume discuss the trauma which may result from the child's separation
from mother/family/peers, anxiety over medical pro- cedures,
unfamiliarity of the hospital environment, absence from school,
restrictions on physical activity, forced dependency and con- cerns over
body image. The search for solutions to adaptation diffi- culties often
results in the creation of new hospital programs. These too are reviewed
in this bibliography. Examples include child-life programs, the
care-by-parent units, foster grandparent/surrogate mother programs, and
hospital or surgical orientation programs. New therapeutic approaches
have been attempted in a hospital setting, in- cluding bibliotherapy,
puppet therapy, play therapy and mutual-story- telling techniques. Each
of these innovations is represented in the bibliography. Further,
hospital redesign schemes are reviewed, in- cluding the feasibility of
separate adolescent wards. And finall, modification of hospital policy
has been examined, including estab- lishment of liberal visiting
privileges, parent rooming-in, day v vi PREFACE surgery, and improved
communication between patient, parent, and hos- pital staff.
