Professional Paper
The Evaluation of the Volunteer Program “Storytellers for Good Night in Children’s Hospital Kantrida”: What Do the Children and Parents Say?
Sanja Tatalović Vorkapić
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Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Rijeka, Rijeka
Lucija Jančec
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Rikard Katalinić Jeretov Elementary School, Opatija
Ksenija Vičić
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“Portić”, Professional Association for Child Welfare's Promotion, Rijeka
Fulltext (croatian, pages 95-116).pdf
Abstracts
The purpose of the evaluation of the programme: “Storytellers for good night in Children’s hospital Kantrida”, was to analyse its successfulness through questioning hospitalized children and their parents about their attitudes toward storytellers, their telling stories and the existence of a significant relationship between storytelling and the hospitalization effect. The evaluation was conducted at the Hematology and Oncology Department of the Clinical Hospital Centre Rijeka. Children who were hospitalized at the time of this research participated in the study with written parental consent. The study included 15 children aged from 3 to 17 and 15 parents, ⅔ of whom were mothers. The evaluation inquiry, which was completed by children and parents, was designed especially for the purposes of this study. The investigation was voluntary, anonymous and confidential. Statistical analysis of children’ and parents’ evaluations showed no significant differences between them. Overall, children and parents estimated stories, storytellers and storytelling very positively, as well as the whole programmes’ activity. It was determined that storytelling is significantly connected with lower hospitalization effect, since storytellers’ arrivals was correlated with easier hospital stay, hospital adjustment and the belief in recovery or an optimistic view of the illness. Therefore, the evaluation results showed a significant reduction of negative hospitalization effect, which must be taken into account when considering future work of the Hematology and Oncology department in CHC Rijeka, and future work of the professional association for the promotion of child welfare “Portić”.
Keywords
storytellers, programme evaluation, attitudes of children and parents