Final answer:
Children's responses to hospitalization as part of a care plan can vary based on their attachment styles, ranging from adaptability to difficulty in adjusting to the hospital environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
When initiating a care plan for a child with special needs, it's important to recognize that each child's response to hospitalization can vary greatly. This variation is influenced by their experiences, attachment styles, and the quality of care they've received previously.
Children with secure attachments, where caregivers are responsive to their needs, are more likely to use parents as a secure base to explore from and may adapt more readily to the hospital setting. Conversely, children with avoidant or resistant attachments might struggle more with adapting. Avoidant attachment arises from a caregiver being insensitively attuned to the child's needs, leading them to be unresponsive and not distressed by separations.
Resistant attachment is a result of inconsistent caregiver responses, leading to clingy yet rejecting behaviour. Thus, the nurse's expectation should consider these factors but remain flexible as individual children with special needs might display a range of reactions to hospitalization.