This study investigated the relationship between
cognitive development and children’s understanding of the
hospital nurse’s role. A group of 35 hospitalized children
with chronic conditions and without neurological deficits,
aged 4 to 10 years, were given three tasks (i.e., the
Nurse’s Role Task, the Balance Beam Task, and the Task of
Intrapersonal Understanding), scored for developmental level
using Case’s (1992) neo-Piagetian theory of cognitive
development as a framework. A full sample of 4—year—olds
was not pursued due to the distracting hospital environment
which, in combination with the shorter attention span of the
4-year-olds, rendered the interviews extremely difficult to
complete. Descriptive results indicated a moderately
advanced understanding of the hospital nurse’s role by 8—
and lO—year—olds, being on the order of one—third of a
substage (i.e., approximately 8 months ahead in
development), whereas 4— and 6—year—olds showed an age—
appropriate level of understanding of the hospital nurse’s
role. Analysis of Variance indicated a statistically
significant effect for age on all three tasks (p < .01).
Six levels of social—cognitive development in understanding
the hospital nurse’s role were found, which were, in
successive order: (1) Roles of the nurse as scripted actions
(i.e., 4-year-old level), (2) Roles of the nurse as motivated action sequences (i.e., 6—year—old level), (3)
Roles of the nurse as planned action sequences (i.e., 8—
year—old level), (4) Roles of the nurse as generalized
dispositions toward action (i.e., 10—year-old level), (5)
Roles of the nurse as demonstrating logically planned
decisions towards action (i.e., 12-year—old level), and (6)
Roles of the nurse as demonstrating logically planned action
sequences (i.e., 14—year—old level). Furthermore, results
indicate that a few 6- and 8-year-olds and the majority of
l0—year—olds could give an accurate description of the
duties of the hospital nurse, that is, 1) nurses are there
to help children, 2) nurses have a responsibility for the
well-being of their patients, 3) nurses want to improve the
physical and emotional health of their patients, 4) nurses
also see their own shortcomings in their care for children
and have good intentions, and 5) nurses are human and have
their own feelings, thoughts, doubts, and ideas.
Suggestions for future research have been provided in
order to further improve communication between health care
professionals and hospitalized children with chronic
conditions.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:BVAU.2429/7252 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Eikelhof, Elisa Mary |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Relation | UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/] |
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