O significado do brinquedo terapêutico para a equipe de enfermagem na hospitalização pediátrica

Abstract

Hospitalization is a delicate situation for children and families to experience. Trained professionals caring for these vulnerable children need a vision that good child care is not only dependent on procedures and treatments, but also must care for their psychological and emotional wellbeing. Playing and leisure are important priority areas of health care public policies for early childhood hospital care. The Therapeutic Toy (TT) was created due to the recognition of playing as a fundamental activity for children wellbeing. Therapeutic Toy is divided into three types: Dramatic, Physiological Functions Training and Instructional. The use of TT provides important benefits not only for the child, but also for the family, the nurse, the nursing staff and the healthcare environment. However, even with all of the known benefits of TT, there are still challenges in the use of TT by nursing teams. The purpose of this research is to understand what TT represents for nursing teams in a pediatric hospitalization. This research proposal is qualitative and descriptive method, and was conducted from September 2019 to December 2019. The research scenario was the pediatric clinic of “Professor Alberto Antunes University Hospital” (HUPAA), located in Maceió, Alagoas. The research participants were 19 health professionals from the nursing staff. Individual semi-structured interviews and unstructured observation were performed for the data collection. Key findings of the research study include awareness that nursing professionals are sensitive to the negative aspects of pediatric hospitalization and they recognize the importance of techniques to reduce suffering like playing and the use of toys in the hospital environment. Nursing professionals also recognized the benefits of TT to children and their families. Leisure is a right of hospitalized children and adolescents and should be one of the priorities of the health care public policies for early childhood wellbeing during hospitalization; this recognizes the important time of growth and development. However, the TT technique is still unclear to the nursing staff. Participants are unaware of policy on the topic, but report experiencing the use of toys and play that are close to the purposes of TT. The use of toys in the hospital is seen as dissociated function from nursing care, showing the need for more research studies on the role of TT and the best process for implementing them within institutions. For nursing professionals, there is a need for more training in particular how they can use TT best in pediatric hospitalization, reflecting on the role of TT as part of nursing technique for childhood care.