The effect of nursing interventions with therapeutic play and video animations prepared with psychodrama technique in reducing fear, anxiety, and pain of children at male circumcision: A randomized controlled study

Objective This research was carried out to reduce the fear, anxiety and pain of 4-6 age circumcised children with therapeutic play and video animation interventions.Methods This research was conducted as a randomized controlled study between November 2019 and April 2021. Using block randomization, 30 (n = 30) children were assigned to the control group, 30 (n = 30) to the therapeutic puppet group and 30 (n = 30) to the video animation group. Before the circumcision surgery, therapeutic puppet and video animation interventions were applied to children with scenario prepared with psychodrama technique. Fear, anxiety, and pain findings of children before and after surgery were determined.Results The fear and anxiety scores of the children were similar before the nursing intervention in all groups, and that the fear and anxiety scores of therapeutic puppet play and video animation intervention groups had statistically lower than the control group after nursing intervention. The pain scores of the children from the therapeutic puppet play and video animation groups had lower pain scores than the control group after surgery (F = 5.24, p = 0.007).Conclusions Therapeutic play and video animation intervention can be effective in reducing fear and anxiety of children aged 4-6 before and after circumcision surgery.