Att studera validerade mätinstrument : för att mäta barns oro inför dagoperation

Sammanfattning: Background: Anxiety with children before surgery is well known. From the 1950s there are various assessment instruments. Despite that most day surgery units offer preparation for children and parents, there are many children who exhibit a strong anxiety the day of surgery, which can lead to postoperative behavioral changes. Today the nurse estimates the anxiety of a child on personal experience and knowledge, forming the basis for estimation whether the child is in need of sedation or not. The purpose: of this study was to evaluate instruments that the nurse can use in measuring the degree of anxiety of children before fast clinical settings, such as day surgery. Method: The literature review was conducted by systematic selection. The result: showed that there were evaluated observation scales and self-reported scales for estimating the anxiety of children before surgery and suitable for day surgery. Conclusion: The result shows that there are several useful scales, but none of the scales are evaluated for Swedish conditions. It may be considered as important to the nurse that the use of evaluated instruments in the daily practice and measuring the anxiety with children in order to provide the best care for the child, will minimizing behavioral changes postoperatively.