An investigation of the development of material designed to educate young children about hospital and the evaluation of the material in preparing children aged 4 to 7 for a selected medical procedure (venepuncture)

A study has been made of the effectiveness of material for the education of children about hospital. The material was specially designed following studies of existing material. The views were sought of groups of people closely concerned with children in hospital about the information which should be given to young children, and their reaction to a series of proto-type games was valuable in designing the material used in the study. Many medical procedures were observed in detail in order to select one which appeared most suitable for assessing the value of the educational material. Venepuncture was selected and a book "Andrew has a Blood Test" and a related inset puzzle, were prepared together with an activity book for use with children attending a clinic to have tests of the lead content of their blood. A technique involving two phlebotomists was developed to assess the level of anxiety of (a) children who had played with the specially designed material (b) children who had played with other non-medical material, and (c) children who did not have any play material. The result showed a significant reduction in anxiety and increase in cooperativeness among the children of group (a) as compared with those of groups (b) and (c).