PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to investigate effects of distraction with a cell phone on pain and fear during venipuncture procedures in hospitalized preschool children.
METHOD
Fifty four preschool children, ages 3-6, were recruited from one university affiliated hospital in Daegu.
Participants were assigned to the control group (n= 27) to receive usual care or the intervention group (n=27) to receive distraction plus usual care. The FACE scale was used to assess children's pain, and the visual analogue scale (VAS) to assess each mothers' perceptions of her child's pain. For assessment of fear, the Procedure Behavioral Checklist developed by Lebaron and Zeltzer was used.
RESULTS
Results show that children in the intervention group demonstrated significantly lower pain scores on FACE (t=2.19, p<.03) as rated by the children and on VAS (t=2.78, p<.01) as rated by their mothers. Children in the intervention group also had significantly lower fear scores (t=2.30, p<.02) as rated by the researcher.
CONCLUSION
Distraction with cell phone for relieving pain and fear during venipuncture procedure was effective for these hospitalized preschool children.
