Promoting Parental Use of Nonpharmacologic Techniques With Children During Lumbar Punctures

A pretest and posttest with control group design was used to examine the effect of teaching eight children with acute leukocytic leukemia, aged 6 to 14 years, and their parents about selected nonpharmacologic techniques, then to support their use of these techniques during children's lumbar punctures. Children's distress behaviors were observed and recorded during the procedures. A Visual Analogue Scale was used to obtain children's self-report and parents' and staff nurses' perceptions of children's pain during the procedure. Posttest comparison of four subjects in the treatment group with four subjects in the control group indicated that the treatment group had fewer expressions of verbal resistance (P = .04), less muscular rigidity (P = .04), and more parent interventions (P = .06). Preintervention with postintervention comparison of all eight subjects indicated that following intervention, children had lower levels of self-reported pain (P = .09), fewer requests for emotional support (P = .07), fewer expressions of verbal fear (P = .10), and fewer information-seeking questions (P = .10). Comments from children and parents indicate that children benefitted from nonpharmacologic techniques.