Benefits to Clinicians of Nonpharmacological Distraction During Pediatric Medical Procedure

Abstract

CONTEXT: Nonpharmacologic distraction (NPD) during medical procedures in children is known to be beneficial to patients; however, no reviews have assessed their benefits to medical providers. OBJECTIVES: We aimed to assess the benefits of NPD to medical providers. DATA SOURCES: We searched 5 databases for relevant articles. STUDY SELECTION: Peer-reviewed published randomized controlled trials comparing NPD with standard care that included children who had undergone medical procedures were included. DATA EXTRACTION: Primary outcomes were procedure time, number of medical staff involved, and initial success rate of venipuncture. Two reviewers assessed the risk of bias by using the Cochrane Collaboration (Oxford, United Kingdom)’s Randomized Controlled Trials Risk of Bias Tool, and we performed a meta-analysis to assess efficacy. RESULTS: We included 22 trials with 1968 participants. The main NPD was audiovisual distraction, such as tablets. No significant difference was found in venipuncture procedure time (mean difference: −9.79; 95% confidence interval: −22.38 to 2.81; low certainty). We found no studies on the number of medical staff. CONCLUSIONS: Our review did not find any clear NPD-associated benefit for the medical provider. The review included a small amount of literature, analyzed a small number of cases, and had a low certainty of evidence regarding procedure duration; therefore, further studies are needed to conclude the benefits to clinicians of NPD.