How can nurses ensure children feel calm during clinical procedures?
Lucy Bray, who is appearing at Nursing Live, RCNi’s unique event, offers practical advice
Lucy Bray, who is appearing at Nursing Live, RCNi’s unique event, offers practical advice
Lucy Bray looks at the implications for practice of a study examining how parents share medical information with their children
Being held still and not being informed about why a procedure was being carried out are some of the upsetting experiences children with a learning disability decribed to Greg Cigan and colleagues in this groundbreaking study. This article is part of a series of extended abstracts of research undertaken by nurses in practice
Background Patient and public involvement is an emerging element of contemporary research and reflects an acknowledgement of the expertise of people who have personal knowledge or experience of a research topic. Aim To discuss the value of consultation in contributing to the ethical and methodological choices underpinning a qualitative study. Discussion The study discussed explored the perceptions and experiences of children aged four to 12 with long-term conditions of being held still by adults during clinical procedures in acute care. Consultation took place in three stages and involved engagement with a children’s advisory group and members of the public, including parents and a teacher. Conclusion Engagement shaped the focus, influenced the design and underpinned the ethical basis of the study. In addition, consultation identified that the focus of the research was misunderstood by potential participants and their parents. Implications for practice Engaging in robust consultation is a valuable process which can inform research design in unexpected ways. Engagement with children ensures that their perspectives are identified and included and shape the study.
We have developed an information leaflet with advice on how to support children before, during and after a planned clinical procedure, using ideas from consultations with parents and professionals. Children worry about these procedures and children who are prepared and supported through procedures have better experiences. The project developing the leaflet had five phases: a scoping review of existing information, a parent consultation group, readability and parent feedback, professional input and feedback, and a final review by the patient information officer. In total, we consulted with 5 0 parents and 134 professionals during this project. We report on how the consultation process used group work and structured feedback to influence the content and format of the leaflet.
Idiopathic scoliosis surgery is performed to correct a curvature of the spine. This is a painful surgical procedure which is carried out on otherwise healthy young people. This article reports on a small evaluation project which focused on young people’s opinions and experiences of their pain information needs, pain management and pain assessment. Nine young people completed written activity sheets before and after scoliosis surgery. Most of the information provided on the activity sheets involved positive comments about the surgical experience although some indicated that the management of pain continued to be a challenge after spinal surgery. The project has highlighted that there is more work to be done to ensure that young people are prepared for surgery and they are helped to convey their experiences of pain to health professionals during their treatment and recovery.
AS IDENTIFIED by the authors, this book takes a conventional approach to introducing and discussing the fundamentals of research and the application to nursing and health care.