| Children admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit undergo great physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual stresses that require understanding of the nurse who is sensitive to the dynamics of being a critically ill child. This grounded theory study was focused on what spiritual conceptualizations school-aged children in a southern culture expressed as responses to questions about a pictorial instrument.;The grounded theory work of Ebmeier, Lough, Huth and Autio (1991) provided the basis for the study of these critically ill children. The sample consisted of seven children, ages 8 to 12 years, who were asked several questions about a set of four pictures. The questions were open ended and the children were encouraged to share a story about what was happening in the pictures. "Spirituality" and "God" were considered synonymous for the purposes of this study. Four categories were obtained indicating the children's thoughts and feelings about the pictures: feelings about illness, anticipating home and wellness, thoughts and feelings about prayer, and thoughts about God.;From examination of the data, processes were that critically ill children do conceptualize God and spirituality while ill and thoughts and feelings about going home and getting well were foremost in the minds of these children. Limitations of the study include the researcher's lack of experience with the method of grounded theory study, the concise amount of data perhaps due to the stressful environment in which the children were interviewed, and the southern, culturally biased sample that was used. |
