Effect of rooming-in on pre-schoolers prior to tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy

This research study was undertaken to determine if having a parent present would make a difference in physiological and emotional measures in two groups of children hospitalized for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. The Experimental Group of eighteen children had a parent present to spend the pre-operative night and the post-operative night in cases where children stayed two nights. The Control Group of nineteen children had a parent present on admission, during the afternoon and on the morning of surgery: these parents did not spend the night in the hospital with their children. The following measures of physical and emotional stress were made during the course of hospitalization and at a home visit a week later: pulse, respiration and blood pressure reading on admission, the morning of surgery, in the recovery room and back in their own rooms, as well as at the beginning and end of a home visit. Apprehension on the morning of surgery was assessed by asking the parent to evaluate his child's emotional state; the amount of crying at two specific periods in the hospital was measure and compared between groups. A questionnaire was given parents at the home visit asking them to evaluate emotional distress in their children, associated with the past hospital experience. Analysis of data showed a significantly lower pulse at the .05 level on the morning of surgery in the Control Group who did not have a parent present. This finding was contrary to what was expected. Variability in scores on four measures, admission pulse, difference between first and second home visit blood pressures, sleep patterns the preoperative night, and reaction to "shots" after surgery, were significantly greater at the .05 level in the Experimental Group, suggesting the extreme of influence of parents.