Effect of a children’s play area in the common pre-operative room on anxiety levels of paediatric patients undergoing elective surgery: a quasi-experimental study

The peri-operative experience can be quite distressing, more so in paediatric patients. Pre-operative anxiety can have long term psychological effects, and behavioral issues even as adults.  Hospitals taking care of paediatric patients, especially those undergoing surgery, should strive to create a friendlier environment for the child as well as the parents. Numerous interventions have been described to decrease paediatric anxiety including use of audio-visual aids and technology, toys, use of medications as well as alternative therapies such as hypnosis and music therapy. Many organizations which are not dedicated paediatric centers, often have common pre-operative areas for adult and paediatric patients. In such cases, dedicated and focused paediatric centric work flow is often difficult to achieve. This is also affected by financial constraints and allocation of funds. This study is planned as a quality improvement initiative at our institute to create a demarcated paediatric friendly area in the common pre-operative rooms of various OT complexes, with the purpose to investigate the clinical effects on the paediatric patients. This study may be able to generate data, which can guide organizations in improving the perioperative experience of the child as well as the family. The hypothesis is that in the post intervention (paediatric play area) implementation  period anxiety  levels of paediatric surgical patients will be lesser than those before the creation of paediatric play area in the common pre op rooms.