Nursing interventions for the management of preoperative anxiety in the pediatric patient

Abstract

Introduction: Preoperative anxiety in pediatric patients has a high prevalence, negatively affecting the perioperative process of children, increasing the possibility of complications and causing poor pain control. Objectives: Know the existing interventions to reduce preoperative anxiety in pediatric, to study the effectiveness of them and identify the factors that influence it. Methodology: A literature review was performed in three recognized databases between November and December 2022, using as search equation: (intervention) AND (preoperative anxiety) AND (children OR pediatric). The selected studies passed the appropriate methodological quality scale. Results: paciente y el nivel socioeconómico, sobre todo. También estarían implicados factores como el sexo del menor, la separación de los padres que supone la intervención, el aislamiento del entorno social, experiencias previas del menor con el ambiente sanitario/hospitalario y la falta de información acerca del proceso quirúrgico information through comics do not show clear efficacy. The child´s age, level of development and previous experience with the hospital environment influence the effectiveness of these interventions. Conclusion: Interventions that involve a high level of distraction, that provide information and help the child to become familiar with the environment, are the most effective to reduce anxiety in this type of patients, with virtual reality being the most effective in recent studies. In addition, taking into account the characteristics of each patient is crucial to the choice of these interventions and to achieve the greatest effectiveness.