Coping with Pokes: Child, Caregiver, and Clinician Feedback on a Caregiver-Led Educational Resource for Managing Children’s Needle Fear

TL;DR

This study developed and tested a caregiver-led educational resource to help young children with needle fear, gathering feedback from children, caregivers, and healthcare professionals.

Contribution

The novel contribution is the creation and evaluation of a caregiver-directed educational resource for managing children's moderate to high needle fear.

Findings

Participants found the e-resource satisfactory and highlighted strengths like the CARDTM system and children’s book.

Feedback indicated areas for improvement, including resource length and language clarity.

The feedback informed revisions for future evaluation.

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Given the critical role of vaccinations and venipunctures in disease prevention and health monitoring, it is concerning that over half of children ages 4 to 8 experience some level of needle fear. Higher levels of fear result in longer procedure times, ineffective pain management, distressing memories of needles, and ultimately, healthcare avoidance. Exposure-based therapy with a therapist is recommended for high levels of fear. However, access is limited due to cost, wait times, clinician shortages, system barriers, and social stigma. Thus, there is a need for an evidence-informed, caregiver-directed educational resource for management of moderate to high needle fear in young children. Methods: To address this gap, such a resource was drafted which included a caregiver guide and an illustrated children’s book. The current objective was to gather key user feedback on this initial version of the resource. Participants reported their perceptions of the content, coping strategies, design, organization, and accessibility of the resource through semi-structured interviews and limited quantitative ratings. Participants were children with moderate to high levels of needle fear (N = 6), their caregivers (N = 6), and healthcare professionals (N = 6; including needle providers, child life specialists, and mental health clinicians). Interviews were coded with inductive content analysis; descriptive statistics were calculated for quantitative ratings. Results: Participants reported satisfaction with the e-resource and highlighted strengths (e.g., CARDTM system, children’s book) and improvement areas (e.g., length, language). Conclusion: Feedback informed revisions to the e-resource in preparation for further evaluation in a follow-up study.