Hearing the Child's Voice: Their Lived Experience in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

All rights reserved.iv DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to those hospitalized children who were willing to share their stories with me. This work was possible because of them. To Ryan, Evan, Anna, and Valerie -thank you for listening, encouraging, and understanding when work came before play. I would also like to dedicate this work to my good friend and colleague, Eve Butler. Thank you for paving the way and providing such encouragement and support.To my mom, thank you for driving me home, listening to my stories, and centering me. You have always been my biggest cheerleader and fan. Thank you for believing in me, sometimes more than I believed in myself. We do not need to scratch the 2014 date off the mugs! I love you so much. Aims: The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate school age children's and adolescents' perceptions of PICU while in the PICU; changes in perceptions after transfer to the General Care Unit (GCU); differences in perceptions of school age children/adolescents and those with more invasive procedures.Methods: Interviews were conducted in PICU within 24-48 hours of admission and 24-48 hours after transfer to GCU. Data on demographics, clinical care and number/types of procedures were obtained.Results: Participants were 7 school age children, 13 adolescents; 10 Hispanic; 13 males.