Exploring key elements of approaches that support childrens' preferences during painful and stressful medical procedures: A scoping review

PROBLEM: Children undergoing medical procedures can experience pain and distress. While numerous interventions exist to mitigate pain and distress, the ability to individualize the intervention to suit the needs and preferences of individual children is emerging as an important aspect of providing family-centered care and shared decision making. To date, the approaches for supporting children to express their preferences have not been systematically identified and described. A scoping review was conducted to identify such approaches and to describe the elements that are included in them.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: Studies that (a) described approaches with the aim to support children to express their coping preferences during medical procedures; (b) included the option for children to choose coping interventions; (c) included a child (1--18 years).

SAMPLE: Searches were conducted in December 2019 and November 2020 in the following databases: Cinahl, Embase, PubMed and Psycinfo.

RESULTS: Thirteen studies were identified that included six distinct approaches. Four important key elements were identified: 1) Aid to express preferences or choice, 2) Information Provision, 3) Assessment of feelings/emotions, 4) Feedback/Reflection and Reward.

CONCLUSIONS: Identified approaches incorporate components of shared decision-making to support children in expressing their preferences during medical procedures and treatments.

IMPLICATIONS: Children undergoing medical procedures can be supported in expressing their coping needs and preferences by using components of shared decision-making.