Wacky Wednesday: Use of Distraction Through Humor to Reduce Preoperative Anxiety in Children and Their Parents

Unstructured play for anxiety in pediatric inpatient care

“…These findings are consistent with the findings of a number of studies measuring the impact of a range of focused and structured interventions such as music for relaxation, storybooks, clown doctors, and electronic games designed to reduce levels of anxiety and pain experienced by children and adolescents in pediatric healthcare settings (Berger et al., ; Cuzzocrea, Costa, Gugliandolo, & Larcan, ; Gao et al., ; Hartling et al., ; Perry, Hooper, & Masiongale, ; Tunney & Boore, ; Yun et al., ).…”

“…A growing literature reports on research evaluating the impact of interventions designed to reduce anxiety in children undergoing surgery. These include educational initiatives such as 3‐D storybooks (Macindo et al., ), clown‐nurse educational interventions (Yun, Kim, & Jung, ), educational multimedia applications (Fernandes, Arriaga, & Esteves, ), interesting games (Gao et al., ), humor (Berger, Wilson, Potts, & Polivka, ), and therapeutic play (He et al., ).…”

The effectiveness of age‐appropriate pre‐operative information session on the anxiety level of school‐age children undergoing elective surgery in Jordan

“…however, all groups of the study experienced significant change in heart rate from pre-to-post intervention. In the same line, no significant difference in HR and BP readings of children in intervention and control groups was seen (Berger et al, 2014). These inconsistent results may raise mistrust on the value of using HR and BP readings for indirect assessment of children preoperative anxiety; thus, more studies are mandated.…”

“…Surgery is unforgettable experience in the life of children and their families (Ahmed, Farrell, Parrish, & Karla, 2011). Anxiety from unknown, needles, surgical tools, pain, being away from parents and family, strange people, and hospital setting cannot be avoided (Ahmed et al, 2011;Berger, Wilson, Potts, & Polivka, 2014;Dionigi, Sangiorgi, & Flangini, 2014).…”

Randomized clinical trial of immersive virtual reality tour of the operating theatre in children before anaesthesia

“…Various interventions to reduce anxiety, including premedication, parental presence during induction of anaesthesia and distraction methods, have been evaluated. Providing information on what to expect on entering the operating theatre to both children and their parents is another conventional way of reducing anxiety.…”