"Prepare for Operation" Bundle for Young Children Undergoing Elective Surgery: Emotional Manifestation and Anxiety

A hospital admission and surgical operation commonly triggers great fear and anxiety to young children. This is caused by either lack of knowledge or misconception. Although parent and families are often given the task to prepare the child for the oncoming surgery, they often lack information and skill to accomplish this task. Although numerous measures such as pre-operative play room, parental companion during induction, distraction therapy have been employed in our institution, this remains to be a challenge for care of young surgical patients.

Our study proposes to use a "prepare-for-operation" (PFO) bundle to assist our paediatric patients and their families to prepare for surgery. The PFO bundle consists of an informative cartoon video illustrating sequence of events occurring in admission, anesthesia and surgery. The video is also accompanied by activity sheets to encourage patient and family to engage, participate and learn about all these events. They will be instructed to use this PFO bundle before admission. We believe that through this off-site and cost-effective intervention, the fear of children undergoing surgery will be significantly alleviated. The family will also have better satisfaction on hospitalization experience. If proven feasible and effective, this will be a simple intervention tool that can be made accessible to all KKH pediatric patients.