Five million children undergo invasive medical procedures each year. Parents frequently stay with their children during procedures, but little research exists on teaching parents how to help their children while in attendance. Distraction is an intervention that has been shown to reduced child distress behavior during medical procedures. The purpose of this study is to test an educational intervention that shows parents how to use distraction with their children undergoing urinary catheterization. The effects of parental use of distraction on child distress behavior will be tested using a double-blind quasi-experimental design. Forty sets of children (ages 3 to 7 years) and their parents will be randomized into experimental and control conditions, with experimental parents viewing a videotape about distraction techniques and control parents viewing a placebo videotape. Video recordings of the catheterization procedures will be analyzed for parent and child behaviors using the Child-Adult Medical Procedure Interaction Scale-Revised. Group means will be compared for parental use of distraction, child distress behavior, and child self- report of pain and anxiety. Other variables to be tested are parent satisfaction with and cost-effectiveness of the intervention. The results of this study will guide the development of research questions for future studies.
| Kleiber, C; Harper, D C (1999) Effects of distraction on children's pain and distress during medical procedures: a meta-analysis. Nurs Res 48:44-9 |
