The effectiveness of a multicomponent preadmission preparation program for same-day surgical patients was evaluated. Participants were 50 children, ages 4 to 7, admitted to a Short Stay Recovery Unit for elective surgery. Twenty-five of these children and their parents had attended the preparation program and the other 25 had not. Measures administered to the children and behavioral ratings by parents and anesthetists were used to assess children's anxiety and adjustment. Results suggested that children who attended the program knew more about hospitalization and surgery at the time of admission and were less upset at the time of anesthesia induction than children who did not attend. Children's self-reported fears about the hospital were not significantly different for the two groups nor were parents' ratings of children's behavior following hospitalization.
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Darlene M. Atkins (1987) studied this question.