Bedside blues: the impact of social research on the hospital treatment of sick children.

The development of changes in the treatment of the welfare of children in hospital has a long history and some resistances are still to be found to unrestricted parental visiting and the introduction of play facilities. This paper surveys the contribution of social research to the care of children and argues against the uncritical adoption of `rule of thumb' procedures. Instead, a closer cooperation between research and practice is proposed to help overcome the problems of implementing change in hospitals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]