Needs and expectations of adolescent in-patients: the experience of Gaslini Children’s Hospital
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Luisa Massimo
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.
Conclusion: 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.
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©2016 by De Gruyter
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Smoking: do you really know the risk?
- Original Articles
- Practices and perceptions of adolescent girls regarding the impact of dysmenorrhea on their routine life: a comparative study in the urban, rural, and slum areas of Chandigarh
- Needs and expectations of adolescent in-patients: the experience of Gaslini Children’s Hospital
- Prevalence and determinants of cigarette smoking among adolescents in secondary schools in Port Harcourt, Southern Nigeria
- Comprehensive obesity evaluation and treatment of three adolescents: a case series
- Exercise, bodyweight perception and related weight loss behavior among adolescents in Trinidad and Tobago
- Oral health habits, attitudes and behaviors of Portuguese adolescents
- Using UV photoaged photography to better understand Western Australian teenagers’ attitudes towards adopting sun-protective behaviors
- Adolescent pesticide exposures reported to Texas poison centers
- Can a healthy youth development clinic serving latino families be youth friendly and family oriented? A mixed-methods evaluation
- Insights into Facebook Pages: an early adolescent health research study page targeted at parents
- Iranian adolescents’ insufficient physical activity: a mixed methods explanatory sequential study
- Sensation seeking indirectly affects perceptions of risk for co-occurrent substance use
- The understanding of risk factors for eating disorders in male adolescents
- Case Reports
- The role of temperament in traumatic hearing loss: a single case study of a cochlear-implanted patient
- Congenital megalourethra: a case report of an isolated delayed presentation
- Short Communication
- Problematic internet use and social networking site use among Dutch adolescents
- Letter to the Editor
- A teen’s perspective: adolescent access to their own electronic medical records
