The Effect of Finger Puppet Show on the Level of Children’s Pain and Fear During the Incision Suturation in Paediatric Emergency Service: A Randomized Controlled Trial

Abstract

Introduction: This study evaluated the effect of finger puppet applied during incision saturation, to mitigate the level of pain and fear of children in the emergency department. Children with incisional sutures were recruited by convenience sampling from the pediatric emergency department of a university hospital in a city in Turkey. Methods: This study used a random controlled experimental design and had a calculated sample size of 65. There were consisted of 33 children in the study group and 32 children in the control group. A puppet show was performed on the children in the experimental group during the incision suturation while no procedure was applied to the children in the control group. The pain and anxiety levels of the children in the control and experimental groups were measured during the incision suturation. The “personal information form”, “Wong-Baker faces pain rating scale” and “children’s fear scale’’ were used to collect data. The chi-square test, Mann-Whitney U test, Wilcoxon test, and Fridman test were used to analyse the data. Results: A statistically significant difference was found between the children in the control and experimental groups in terms of the levels of pain and fear (p<0.05). The pain and fear levels of children in the experimental group were lower than the control group. Conclusion: It was concluded in the study that the puppet show performed during the incision suturation influenced the reduction of the pain and fear associated with the procedure.

Keywords

• incision suturation
• pain
• fear
• child
• puppet
• nurse