We conducted an integrative literature review that aimed to analyze the scientific literature about hospital classrooms in order to describe the theme and the issues addressed in published studies. We conducted a review regarding the health and education literature in the area of education for hospitalized children and teenagers in indexed databases using the keywords: hospitalized child, special education, hospitalized teenager, hospital classroom and education and health. A brief reading of the titles, abstracts and full texts followed, and then the articles that addressed the research topic were selected, adding up to 13 studies. For the analysis, the first step was to characterize the publications in order to identify authors, year, study area and methodological approach. Next, the articles were thoroughly read in order to absorb common contents and group them into three Thematic Approaches: Hospital Classroom and Institutional Administrative Aspects, Hospital Classroom and Hospitalization Process, and Pedagogical Practice in Hospital Classroom. Although the production of knowledge in this area is still modest in indexed journals, research confirms that hospital classroom is a pedagogical strategy that enables specialized education and promotes the return and continuity of formal education and child development. There are still few qualified professionals working in hospital classroom due to the lack of specific education in this area. Important gaps were identified due to the lack of official information on hospital classrooms, preventing the understanding of the full dimension and distribution of these activities in Brazil and worldwide.
Special Education; Knowledge Production; Hospital Classroom; Health
