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Exploring Holistic Comfort in Children Who Experience a Clinical Venipuncture Procedure
April A Bice1, Joanne Hall2, Matthew J Devereaux2
1University of North Carolina, Wilmington.
Insights
This study explored children's perspectives on holistic comfort during invasive venipuncture procedures. Key themes identified were body comfort, emotional well-being, environmental factors, and comfort play, offering insights for pediatric nursing care.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nursing
- Child Psychology
- Healthcare Comfort Studies
Background:
- Children frequently undergo invasive procedures in healthcare settings.
- Holistic comfort is well-researched in adults but not from children's perspectives.
- Understanding children's experiences of procedural comfort is crucial for effective care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the concept of holistic comfort during invasive venipuncture procedures from the child's viewpoint.
- To identify factors contributing to procedural comfort in children aged 5-7 years.
- To gather insights from both children and their caregivers regarding procedural experiences.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative descriptive research design.
- Naturalistic inquiry philosophical underpinnings.
- Semistructured interviews with 13 children and 15 caregivers.
- Children used drawings to express perceptions.
Main Results:
- Four themes emerged regarding holistic comfort during venipuncture:
- Body Comfort, Cognitive and Emotional Comfort, Comfort in the Procedure Surroundings, and Comfort Play.
- Thematic content analysis guided the identification of these themes.
Conclusions:
- Findings provide a child-centered understanding of procedural comfort.
- Recommendations are offered for nursing practice, policy, and future research.
- This study assists nurses in managing invasive procedures with a holistic care approach for children.
Purpose:
Children often experience the uncomfortable effects of invasive procedures as a part of primary care and during times of illness. Holistic comfort has been well documented in adult literature but little research exists on the understanding of holistic procedural comfort from the child's perspective. In this study, holistic comfort related to an invasive venipuncture procedure was explored in children age 5 to 7 years and their caregivers of all ages.
Design:
A qualitative descriptive design described by Sandelowski was used.
Method:
The philosophical underpinnings of naturalistic inquiry of Guba and Lincoln were used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 13 child and 15 caregiver participants. Children also drew pictures to help describe their perceptions.
Findings:
Traditional thematic content analysis described by Hsieh and Shannon yielded four overarching themes of holistic comfort related to venipuncture procedures in children: Body Comfort, Cognitive and Emotional Comfort, Comfort in the Procedure Surroundings, and Comfort Play.
Conclusions:
Numerous recommendations for future research are included. Implications for nursing and related health sciences, organizational and administrative policy, invasive procedures, theory, and methods were found and are discussed. Findings from this study will assist nurses in providing procedure management for children from a holistic care perspective.
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