The effects of the explaining peripheral catheter application over 4-6 years of chi̇ldren on rag doll on fear, anxiety and pain

Peripheral catheter application is a painful invasive procedure commonly applied to children in the hospital. It is reported that this procedure causes fear and anxiety, especially in children. The study was carried out to explain the effect of peripheral catheter application and the process expression on rag doll in 4-6 years of children. This study, which has an experimental design, was conducted at the Sakarya University Education and Research Hospital Child Health and Diseases Service between December 20, 2019 - April 30, 2020. Families who agreed to participate in the study and 98 children who met the selection criteria were included in the study. The children who participated in the study were told about the procedure with a rag doll before the peripheral catheter application. In the study, Wong Baker Pain Scale, Children's State Anxiety (CSA), Child Fear Scale (CFS) were applied before and after the procedure. In addition, its effect on pulse and respiratory rate was evaluated. The sociodemographic characteristics of children in the experimental and control groups are similar. Pain levels of children in the experimental group after the procedure ((X̄) :1.13) are lower than the control group ((X̄) :1.78). The fear and anxiety levels of the experimental group children (S.O: 40.05) were lower than the control group (S.O: 59.76). Pulse value did not show a statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups, whereas (t (96): -1.84, p> 0.05), the respiratory value was significantly lower. Although the anxiety levels of the experimental group children before the procedure were higher than the control group, the anxiety levels of the experimental group children after the procedure were lower (t (96): 2.194, p <0.05). It was found that explaining the procedure on the rag doll reduces the fear and anxiety of the children and the pain levels after the procedure were significantly lower.