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The use of a tablet as a distraction was not effective in decreasing pain and distress in children receiving an injection.

This study examines how different types of activities, including medical play, typical play, and videos, affect the mood and behaviors of children visiting a pediatric office. Seventy-two school-aged children visiting a pediatrician's office were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: medical play, medical information video, typical play, and nonmedical information video control. Children completed a mood self-report measure and their behaviors were recorded during triage by nurses. The medical information video improved the school-aged children's mood. Children in the medical information video displayed less difficult behaviors during procedures than the medical play group. The findings suggest that providing information about medical equipment through a video of a child engaging in medical play may benefit children visiting the pediatrician.

This study explored the relationships between hospitalized children's anxiety level, mothers' use of coping strategies, and mothers' satisfaction with the hospital experience. Twenty-four hospitalized children and their mothers participated in this study. Children were asked to draw a person in the hospital, which was then coded as a projective measure of anxiety; mothers were asked to complete questionnaires on their coping behaviors and their satisfaction with their child's hospital experience. The use of more coping strategies by the mothers was related to less anxiety in the children. In addition, the more coping strategies the mothers used, the higher they reported their satisfaction. The findings suggest the importance of providing resources aimed at increasing maternal coping and satisfaction with the quality of care of a child's hospitalization in order to minimize the negative effects of the hospitalization on the children.