Procedural comfort care is fortunately the norm today: the child’s comfort is paramount and just as important as the medical treatment itself. More and more hospitals and clinics operate with this mindset, and practice shows why: a child who feels safe is more cooperative. This has implications for the quality of care, but also for the efficiency of your team and your scheduling.
Exactly what those consequences are is rarely calculated. But they do exist.
The costs that are not recorded anywhere
An appointment that ran over, causing the next patient to be seen late and causing tension to rise unnecessarily before the appointment. A family that went home with a story about how their child experienced it, not about the quality of the treatment.
These situations have a price: in time, in scheduling capacity, and in the experience a family takes home. That price does not appear on any budget. But it is there, day after day.
One child who is difficult to calm can affect the rest of the morning. The core of comfort care is that procedural comfort always comes first, not the procedure. But that also requires an environment that makes this possible.
What happens in the waiting room
A child waiting for treatment or an examination is already engaged. They scan the room, read the atmosphere, and determine if they feel safe. A sick child does not understand why an examination or treatment is necessary and will resist. That resistance is not unwillingness. It is a reaction to the feeling of having no control over what is about to happen.
That feeling arises in the minutes before the treatment, even before the child has entered the treatment room. Those minutes beforehand are relatively easy to influence. Not only by what a healthcare provider says or does, but also by what the space offers.
A child who has something to do themselves during the wait, something they can control, reacts differently than a child who is just sitting and waiting. The sense of control, however small, sends a different signal to the nervous system. That difference is noticeable in the way they subsequently enter your treatment room.
What this delivers
Calmer children are more cooperative and complete a contact more efficiently. This sounds logical, but it is also supported by science. Prof. Dr. Piet Leroy, Professor of Procedural Comfort Care at MUMC+ and founder of the PROSA Knowledge Center, states that children who have trust in their care are more cooperative, and that treating traumatized children actually takes a lot of time. Preventing trauma is therefore more efficient (DOQ, 2022). Fewer delays, fewer repetitions, less burden on the team.
How Bleep Cares fits in
Breath with Me is a giraffe wall sticker that comes to life via the free BleepCares app. Children point a phone or tablet at the sticker and see the giraffe breathing, slowly in and out. They naturally follow along, without explanation or instruction from the team.
The StoryWall ColorDive and StoryWall Into the Jungle are interactive wallpapers that transform the waiting or treatment room into a world of moving animals. Children explore and control what they see themselves. They have a sense of control at a moment that would otherwise be completely out of their hands.
Curious about what this could mean for your department or institution? Contact us for a no-obligation conversation or to request a custom quote.
Sources
PROSA Knowledge Center (n.d.). Procedural comfort care. https://www.prosanetwork.com/kennisbank/procedurele-comfortzorg/
Leroy, P. (quoted in DOQ, January 2022). Through a sustainable relationship of trust, children cooperate better with care. https://www.doq.nl/door-een-duurzame-vertrouwensrelatie-werken-kinderen-beter-mee-aan-zorg/
Child & Care (December 2022). Preventing anxiety and pain is now paramount in every medical procedure. https://kindenzorg.nl/nieuws_achtergrond/procedurele-comfortzorg-amalia-kinderziekenhuis/