Rice et al. (2008) in their study observed the effectiveness of providing information in reducing anxiety through a Saturday morning club. In this intervention children and their parents attended a 90 minute programme 2 weeks prior to their scheduled day for surgery. During this time they visited the day unit, the operating room waiting and recovery areas, met staff members and were oriented to the environment. They were given anaesthetic equipment and encouraged to familiarize themselves with it and they watched a short slide show explaining what would occur during their hospital stay. As part of this prospective observational study, children (n = 94) were assigned to either the control or the intervention group. Anxiety was measured by means of a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) for parents, and a modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale for children, both of which the authors clearly outlined in terms of their validity and reliability. The three areas where measurements occurred were in the day room, the operating room waiting area and in the anaesthetic room when putting the child to sleep under general anaesthetic. Anxiety levels were observed to be significantly lower for children who attended the saturday morning club when in the waiting area of the operating room (Rice et al., 2008). However no differences were established in parental anxiety of either group at this stage, and this remains consistent with other research (Spencer & Franck, 2005). Spencer & Franck (2005) suggested that this low impact preparation is only efficient at reducing anxiety levels at times of lower stress.