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Impact of a Child Life and Music Therapy Procedural Support Intervention on Parental Perception of Their Child's
Gabriela S Ortiz1, Todd OʼConnor, Jessa Carey
1From the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department, Mount Sinai's Kravis Children's Hospital, New York, NY.
Insights
A combined child life and music therapy intervention significantly reduced distress in pediatric patients undergoing intravenous (IV) placement. This approach supports adaptive coping and minimizes psychological trauma during medical procedures.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric emergency medicine
- Child psychology
- Integrative healthcare
Background:
- Child life specialists and music therapists provide crucial psychosocial support to pediatric patients.
- These professionals utilize interventions to enhance coping and mitigate psychological distress associated with healthcare experiences.
- A multimodal approach combining child life and music therapy was developed to address distress during intravenous (IV) procedures in a pediatric emergency setting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the efficacy of a combined child life and music therapy intervention.
- To evaluate parental perceptions of their child's distress during IV placement.
- To assess the intervention's impact on patient coping and adjustment.
Main Methods:
- Prospective analysis of children aged 4-11 undergoing IV placement in a pediatric emergency department.
- Pre- and post-intervention surveys administered to parents to assess perceived child distress.
- Statistical analysis using the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel method and SAS PROC GENMOD.
Main Results:
- Significant differences were observed between pre- and post-test scores (P < 0.05).
- The intervention demonstrated a significant positive impact on parental perceptions of their child's response.
- Improvement was noted across all measured aspects of distress and coping.
Conclusions:
- The combined child life and music therapy intervention effectively supported adaptive coping in pediatric patients.
- This multimodal approach significantly minimized distress during IV placement procedures.
- Findings highlight the clinical value of integrating child life psychological preparation and music therapy for pediatric procedural distress.
Objectives:
Child life specialists and music therapists have a unique and integral role in providing psychosocial care to pediatric patients and families. These professionals are trained to provide clinical interventions that support coping and adjustment and reduce the risk of psychological trauma related to hospital visits and health care encounters. The researchers devised a multimodal approach using a combined child life and music therapy intervention to address procedure-related distress in patients receiving intravenous (IV) placement in the pediatric emergency department. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of this collaborative intervention by evaluating parental perception of their child's distress.
Methods:
This study was a prospective analysis investigating the impact of a child life and music therapy intervention on children aged 4 to 11 years old receiving an IV placement in the pediatric emergency department. Efficacy was evaluated by comparing scores between a 4-question pretest and subsequent 4-question posttest that asked the child's parent to evaluate how they anticipated their child would respond to the procedure, and then to evaluate how they perceived their child to have responded after the procedure. Qualitative data were collected in the form of open-ended comments, which were accommodated at the end of the posttest. Data were analyzed by the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel method for testing repeated ordinal responses and the PROC GENMOD procedure in the SAS system software.
Results:
A total of 41 participants were enrolled in this study. Results of the statistical analysis revealed significant differences between all pre- and posttest scores (P < 0.05), and significant likelihood that the patient would improve relative to the 4 questions, as a result of the child life and music therapy intervention.
Conclusions:
Improvement was demonstrated across all 4 questions, suggesting that the child life and music therapy intervention supported healthy, adaptive coping and helped to minimize distress experienced by patients during IV placement. These results underscore the importance and potential clinical impact of child life psychological preparation and psychotherapy-based music therapy interventions in reducing distress in pediatric patients during common medical procedures.
