21. TUTORIAL: CHILD DEVELOPMENT, ATTACHMENT AND HOSPITALISATION

Question 1

1. What marked the end of the Victorian Era?

Answer 1

• the dawn of the 20th Century
• this was the beginning of the British Modern Society

Question 2

2. What was the aim for the staff working in Hospitals?

Answer 2

• their aim was primarily based around the detection of patient’s problems
• as well as the selection and the application of the most appropriate treatments

Question 3

3. Why was the experience of being in a hospital much more complicated for the patient?

Answer 3

• this was due to the psychological disruption and the
  limitations encountered in hospital life
• these could produce a number of psychological
  responses
• some of these responses would be severe enough to
  require psychological and psychiatric help

Question 4

4. What was not taken into consideration by the medical environment when they were trying to reduce child mortality?

Answer 4

• the emotions of the child
• such as:
  - loneliness
  - isolation
  - sadness
• the benefits of having parents in the ward

Question 5

5. Why were parents not allowed into the ward with their children in past medical environments?

Answer 5

• their presence was thought unnecessary
• they were thought to be disrupting the general treatment process
• the parents complied with the hospital’s rules because their child was receiving another chance to live
• these parents were also unaware of the potential damage their absence could cause

Question 6

6. What were the conditions in hospitals in the years leading up to 1952?

Answer 6

• parental visiting was forbidden or very limited
• this is because children would cry when their parents
  would leave
  (this was seen as upsetting to the child)

Question 7

7. What were the negative effects children experienced
   as a result of the way hospitals were run in the years
   leading up to 1952?

Answer 7

• they were detached from their parents
• they were emotionally disturbed
• this had a impact on their development

Question 8

8. It was recently recognised that attachment is vitally important for many aspects of a child’s life.
   Name some of these aspects.

Answer 8

• development of sense of self
• development of sense of others
• sense in relationships between self and others

Question 9

9. In the setting of a hospital in which parents are not
   allowed to stay with their child while they receive
   treatment, how did the child react?

Answer 9

• the child has to face fears, frights and hurts without a
  familiar person to cling to
  (no parents)
  (nurses change frequently)
• the child will often experience a shaken trust towards
  their parents or care givers

Question 10

10. How does a young child react the moment they are separated from their parents?

Answer 10

• they protest
• they cry
• they search for their parents
• they are in despair
• they feel apathetic and miserable
• they believe their parents will not return
• they are detached
• they become emotionally distant from their parents
• they become indifferent to their parents

Question 11

11. How have modern hospital settings improved
    nowadays?

Answer 11

• the parents are allowed to stay with their child
• the environment is much more welcoming:
  - smaller ward
  - less cold
  - more colourful
  - less sterile in appearance
• there is one particular doctor or nurse appointed to one patients
• this beings about a sense of familiarity
• there are huge improvements in the sensitivity training of the hospital staff