Effect of Kaleidoscope on Pain Perception of Children Aged 4-6 Years During Intravenous Cannulation

Abstract

Management of children's health includes medical procedures that may be painful or stressful to the child. Yet, despite extensive research findings, policy guidelines and practice, standard recommendations for optimal management of pediatric pain, clinical practices remain inadequate. Hence the investigator conducted a study to assess the effect of distraction method like kaleidoscope in managing pain in children during procedure like intravenous cannulation. The main objective of this study was to assess the effect of kaleidoscope on pain perception of children aged 4-6 years during intravenous cannulation. The research approach adopted for this study was true experimental and the design was post test only control group design. The study was conducted in Upasana hospital, Kollam among 30 children aged 4-6 years who were admitted in the pediatric ward, with 15 children each in experimental and control group. After obtaining consent from caregivers, demographic data was collected and physiological parameters like heart rate and SPO 2 were measured using pulse oximeter, five minutes prior to the cannulation. The children in the experimental group were introduced to kaleidoscope before the cannulation and were told to look through it during the procedure. During cannulation, the objective pain was assessed by using FLACC scale and the physiological parameters were again measured. Five minutes after the procedure, the children were asked to explain the pain during cannulation using Wong Baker Faces Pain Rating scale. The mean pain scores of experimental group was significantly less than that of the control group (p<0.05). There was a significant relationship between pain scores and variability in heart rate (r=0.93 according to FLACC scale & r=0.85 according to WBFPRS) and SPO 2 (r= 0.93 according to FLACC scale & r=0.86 according to WBFPRS) of children during intravenous cannulation. To sum up, the kaleidoscope was shown to be effective in managing pain in children aged 4-6 years, during intravenous cannulation. So distraction can be used effectively in pain management of children.