The pain children suffer during medical procedures can be eased when their parents occupy kids’ hands and minds with something else, according to research underway at the University of Iowa. Dr. Charmaine Kleiber, an advanced practice nurse at the U-of-I, is leading the study.She says children who are having trouble with an I-V insertion or a needle stick can be calmed and actually feel less pain by being distracted from the pain by their parents. Dr. Kleiber says there are many ways parents can keep their children thinking about things besides being jabbed with a needle or enduring a painful procedure.Distraction coaches find that blowing bubbles works very well. Kleiber says bottles of bubble-blowing stuff are now in all treatment rooms at the Children’s Hospital of Iowa at the U-of-I Hospitals and Clinics.She says a parent can become a formidable distraction coach after about ten minutes of training. The U-of-I has landed a four-year, two-point-one million-dollar grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research to study the effectiveness of that training. The research is being conducted in Iowa City, Des Moines and St. Louis.
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