Psychological and procedural distress following a young child’s burn injury

Abstract

Aim. The aim of this thesis is to understand the parent's role in pediatric procedural distress and recovery following a burn injury. Understanding how parents influence their child can inform future work to reduce pediatric procedural distress and improve recovery outcomes. Literature Review. Following a pediatric burn injury, the associated wound care procedures can be potentially traumatic events that are often painful and distressing. Children under 6-years-old are particularly at risk of sustaining a burn injury, yet their pain-related procedural distress is also difficult to manage because of their young developmental level. Acute child and parental distress during the first weeks following a burn injury might impact the child's physical recovery, and the child and parent's ongoing psychological distress. There is some evidence to indicate that parents influence their child through their own psychological distress, and through parenting behavior. A review of the broader procedural distress empirical and theoretical literature led to the development of a new theoretical model for understanding the relationship between parent and child distress during medical procedures. The review also identified current gaps in the literature regarding current assessment tools and investigating the impact of procedural distress on long-term physical and psychological recovery. Therefore, the studies in this thesis aim to 1) develop and evaluate an appropriate observational assessment tool; 2) test the proposed theoretical model in a sample of parents and young children (1-6-years-old) during pediatric burn wound care; 3) investigate the