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Effects of Parental Presence during Children's Venipuncture
Author(s) -
Wolfram R. Wayne,
Turner Edwin D.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
academic emergency medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.221
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1553-2712
pISSN - 1069-6563
DOI - 10.1111/j.1553-2712.1996.tb03305.x
Subject(s) - venipuncture , medicine , distress , mann–whitney u test , randomized controlled trial , statistical significance , visual analogue scale , pediatrics , clinical psychology , psychiatry , physical therapy
Objective: To determine whether parental presence during venipuncture (VP) altered self‐reported distress of the child, the parent, or the health professional (HP) performing VP. Methods: During nine consecutive months, 130 nonconsecutive 8–18‐year‐old children having VP in an urban pediatric ED were prospectively randomized into two groups of 65 patients each. Before VP, every child, parent, and HP completed a questionnaire developed to measure epidemiologic variables believed to influence distress during VP. The patients were randomized to have either a parent present or both parents absent during VP. The patients, the parents, and the HPs privately self‐reported their distress during VP on a visual analog scale (VAS). Statistical significance was determined by the Mann‐Whitney U (rank‐sum) test. Results: In the parent‐present group, distress scores were lower for the parent (p < 0.01) and for the child (p < 0.04) than they were in the parents‐absent group. The HP performing VP had no difference in distress scores with and without parental presence (p < 0.55). Conclusions: Parents and children having VP have less distress with parental presence. Health professional distress is not affected by parental presence.