The Effectiveness of Bibliotherapy on the Fear of the Hospital Environment for Children with Cancer

Cancer and its long-term and painful treatments could have profound psychological impacts on children. On the other hand, the need for frequent hospitalization is accompanied by problems such as the fear of the hospital environment. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of bibliotherapy on the fear of hospital environments in children with cancer.
In this semi-experimental study, 20 children with cancer (5 -7 years old) were selected by simple random sampling method in 2016 from Amir Hospital in Shiraz. These cancer patients were assigned to two groups of experimental and control based on random blocks. The research tool was the Hospital Fears Rating Scale. The storytelling was performed for the experimental group in 15 sessions for 30 minutes during two months. Before and after two months of the intervention, the parents in both groups completed the questionnaire. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 using descriptive, independent and paired t-tests.
Findings showed that the mean score of fear of children with cancer of hospital environment was significantly different in the experimental group before (26.8 ±5.9) and after the intervention (23.7±5.65, P Bibliotherapy has a positive effect on reducing the fear of hospital environment in children with cancer. Therefore, it is recommended that bibliotherapy be used in the medical environment with children with cancer.