Developing communication support for interaction with children during acute radiographic procedures

The Convention on the Rights of the Child will be absorbed into Swedish law by 2020, which highlights the need to promote equality in communication between health care professionals and communicatively vulnerable children. In this regard, participation and person-centredness is important in the interaction with each child to provide adequate information on the peri-radiographic process in a way that the child can understand. Hence, the aim was to develop communication support for interaction with children during acute radiographic procedures.

The study has a qualitative design adapting a multiphase structure. A participatory design was used which included four phases conducted in succession to each other. Interviews were conducted with children from Elementary School and Special School. Questionnaires were collected from their parents and from radiographers in four different Radiology Departments.

The analysis of the data highlighted the need for information in the peri-radiographic process. Parents and children wanted material that is easy to use and could be adapted in a person-centred way.

A prototype of the ICIR (interactive communication support in radiology settings), with illustrations and accompanying text was developed that can be useful as information sharing in interaction between children, parents and health care professionals in the radiographic context.

The ICIR can be a usable tool for information sharing in the interaction between children, parents and health care professionals during radiographic procedures.