'What is it?': findings on preschoolers' responses to play with medical equipment

When young people enter a hospital they are exposed to a foreign world of u nfamiliar people, medical equipment and language. Children diagnosed with l eukaemia are particularly vulnerable to repeated exposure to these distress ing hospital visits. Assessing a child's understanding of the stresses asso ciated with treatment during hospitalization is now seen as a key element o f caring for the paediatric patient. A population particularly vulnerable t o the effects of the stress of intensive treatments during hospitalization are preschool children. In order to understand the impact on leukaemia pres chool children of intensive hospital treatment it is necessary to have comp arative information on healthy peers who have not been exposed to such trea tment experiences. This article presents findings from recent qualitative r esearch that explored the beliefs held by healthy preschoolers about what h appens in hospital, what it means to be sick, their reactions to and knowle dge of medical equipment and their level of knowledge regarding cancer and leukaemia. It is the hope and expectation that the findings will be used co mparatively to contribute to a deeper understanding of the world of the chi ld coping with leukaemia and related disorders.