The waiting room as a relational space: young patients’ and their families’ experience in a day hospital.

This study investigates the experience of waiting that young patients and their families go through during treatments in day hospitals. Fifty children and adolescents from ages seven to 15 years, admitted to the day hospital of a paediatric haematology and oncology ward of an Italian hospital, completed the Emotional Reaction Instrument (Kim et al., 2012) and the Child Drawing: Hospital (Clatworth et al.,1999). Their parents or relatives completed a semi-structured interview on waiting (Kutash and Northrop, 2007). The results showed that young patients displayed a low level of anxiety and negative emotion. In contrast, the adults experienced waiting in the day hospital as entailing boredom, anxiety and concern for the emotional state of the children. These conditions can be alleviated by relationships and sharing emotions with other adults.