Keywords
Distraction; Pain Management
Abstract
Children may experience pain or discomfort during routine checkups, examinations, and procedures. The most common source of this pain is routine childhood vaccinations. This pain is known as procedural pain. Nurses have limited access to most nonpharmacologic pain relief interventions, but toys are simple to acquire and implementing this intervention falls within the nurses’ scope of practice. The purpose of this review of the literature was to explore current research and determine the efficacy of toys used as distraction to reduce procedural pain in children. A database search literature of CINAHL Plus with Full Text, APA PsychInfo, and MEDLINE databases was conducted. Six articles were evaluated for the effectiveness of toys on reducing procedural pain in the pediatric population. Relevant research suggested the use of toys as distraction is effective in less pain and less negative emotion in pediatric patients during simple procedures like vaccinations and phlebotomy. Further research is needed on the use of distraction for known painful procedures to further supports its routine use.
Thesis Completion Year
2024
Thesis Completion Semester
Spring
Thesis Chair
Allred, Kelly
College
College of Nursing
Thesis Discipline
Nursing
Language
English
Access Status
Campus Access
Length of Campus Access
3 years
Campus Location
Orlando (Main) Campus
STARS Citation
Moran, Nathan A., "The Effectiveness of Toys as a Distraction for Procedural Pain in Pediatric Populations" (2024). Honors Undergraduate Theses. 116.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/hut2024/116
Rights Statement
