Objective: To understand, from the family’s perspective, the meaning of admitting the child in the hospital with the use of the instructional therapeutic play. Method: A phenomenological research with 12 families of children aged four to nine years old, recently admitted to a public and teaching hospital, in the inland of the state of São Paulo, from October to December 2016. They participated in an instructional therapeutic play session focusing on the procedures performed at hospital admission: weight, height, and vital sign measurements and test collection. The families, in turn, were invited to participate in a phenomenological interview the day after the session. Results: The instructional therapeutic play collaborated in the therapeutic procedures by understanding and modifying the child’s behavior. Also stressed by the families was the need for the toy to be incorporated as nursing care. Conclusion: Given the benefits to the child, the family believes that this strategy should be performed as a routine nursing care and, therefore, performed systematically during child hospitalization.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.