JURNAL ILMIAH ILMU KEPERAWATAN INDONESIA Indonesian Nursing and Scientific Journal 88 doi : 10.33221/jiiki.v12i02.1877 June 30, 2022 Introduction World statistics show that the number of people with leukemia in the world reaches around 500-600 million people. Every 1 million people in the world will be born 120 children who suffer from blood cancer. Data from the American Cancer Society (ACS), also shows that in the United States in 2012 there were cases of cancer in children about Volume: 12 Issue: 01 Years: 2022 Research Article Storytelling Therapy Effectively Reduces Anxiety in Children with Leukemia at DR Wahidin Sudirohusodo General Hospital Makassar Ruris Haristiani 1 , Wahyuningsih 2 , Susaldi 3 1 Program Study of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Universitas Jember 2 Program Study of Nursing, Faculty oh Health, Universitas Patria Artha 3 Program Study of Nursing, Faculty of health, Universitas Indonesia Maju, Jakarta Email Corespondent: rurisharistiani@unej.ac.id Editor: KS Received: 13/04/2022 Accepted: 29/06/2022 Published: 30/06/2022 Available Article: 10.33221/jiiki.v12i02.1877 Copyright: ©2021 This article has open access and is distributable under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits un- restricted use, distribution and reproduc- tion in any medium, provided the name of the author and the original source are included. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International License Conflict of interest statement: The researcher declares that this research is free from conflicts of interest of individuals and organizations. Funding: Personal Funding. Background: Children with leukemia are prone to experience anxiety due to various factors. Moreover, side effects of chemotherapy such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting add stress to the children. Storytelling therapy can be used as one of the non- pharmacological methods to reduce anxiety in children. Objectives: seeing the effectiveness of storytelling therapy with audio-visual media in reducing anxiety in children with leukemia. Methods: quantitative research with quasi- experimental: pretest-posttest without a control group. Anxiety in children is measured by Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS) instrument. Statistical test with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test with α = 0,05. Results: There is a decrease in anxiety levels in children with leukemia after being given story-telling therapy. Based on data analysis by the Wilcoxon test, p: 0.000 means story-telling therapy is effective in reducing anxiety in children with leukemia at RSUP DR Wahidin Sudiro Husodo Hospital Makassar. Conclusion: Storytelling therapy with audio-visual media is effective in reducing anxiety levels in children with leukemia. Keywords: children, leukemia, anxiety, storytelling