The information needs of children having clinical procedures in hospital: Will it hurt? Will I feel scared? What can I do to stay calm?
Lucy Bray, Victoria Appleton, Ashley Sharpe
PMID 31163093WHAT IT FOUND
Children aged 8 to 12 identified three kinds of information they wanted before hospital procedures: what will happen, how it may feel or hurt, and what they can do to stay calm.
Detailed, child-led information was valued more than broad or generic information.
Key findings
01Children identified 616 pieces of information, grouped into procedural, sensory, and self-regulation needs.
02Procedural information contained 452 pieces and was identified by all 106 children; sensory information contained 120 pieces from 74 children; self-regulation information contained 44 pieces from 34 children.
03The most important sensory piece was whether the procedure would hurt.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
Only children aged 8 to 12 years with conversational English were included, and children with moderate or severe learning disability or psychological services for procedural anxiety were excluded. Participants were already in hospital for a procedure, which may shape what they report as important compared with children preparing from home. The study did not evaluate an information intervention, timing, format, or outcomes such as anxiety or procedure experience. Recruitment was opportunistic from one UK children's hospital, so the findings may not apply to other settings or groups.
Declared interests
Funded by Innovate UK. No author conflicts of interest are reported in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that giving children procedural, sensory, and coping information will reduce anxiety or improve procedures. This study reports what 106 children said was important before hospital procedures; it did not test an intervention or measure outcomes.