Tips to Help Your Child Feel Comfortable During a Trip to the Emergency Department

Tips to Help Your Child Feel Comfortable During a Trip to the Emergency Department

Photo courtesy of Cleveland Clinic Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department at Fairview Hospital.

 

Photo courtesy of Cleveland Clinic Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department at Fairview Hospital.
Photo courtesy of Cleveland Clinic Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department at Fairview Hospital.

Warm weather will soon be upon Cleveland, finally time for your kids to soak up the sun and fresh air. While playing outside and taking part in spring activities is good, all that fun can increase chances of outdoor injuries, asthma attacks and the like, leading to an unexpected trip to the Emergency Department (ED). In case of emergencies, your child has access to the highest level of pediatric care is available at Cleveland Clinic Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department at Fairview Hospital.

A team of Child Life Specialists is also available to offer guidance and emotional support for children and their families in preparing for any necessary procedure, from tourniquets, to a blood draw, X-rays or surgery.

“When children understand what is happening to them, they cope better and experience less trauma and anxiety,” said Jessica Timms, MS, Certified Child Life Specialist at Fairview Hospital.

Child Life Specialists also provide coping skills to the patient such as relaxation breathing techniques, comfort positioning, mental imagery, and many other means of comfort for patient and family.

“Many times by equipping patients with these techniques and practices prior to the procedure, children tend to stay calmer because they feel that they have more control over the pain or fear that they may be experiencing,” said Timms.

Timms offers the following tips to help make a trip to the ED less stressful:

  • Be honest with your child. It will help a child trust the adult throughout the entire process and help them to feel open enough to ask questions about things they fear when they arrive at the ED.
  • Don’t make promises you can’t keep. For instance, do not promise your child that nothing will hurt or they will not get any shots in order to get them to cooperate or calm down in the car on the way to the ED.
  • Keep calm. Children react to parents’ reactions. As stressful as an ED visit can be to a child and parent, try to remain as calm as possible in order to help the child cope.
  • Focus on them. If it is an option, I highly recommend parents take their children to a Pediatric ED. The staff are specifically trained to work with pediatric patients from medical perspective as well as with the appropriate developmental approaches. The doctors are more knowledgeable about pediatric specific diagnoses, the nurses are able to provide great care to the children and their families, and the Child Life Specialists are great advocates for the patient and creating the least traumatic experience possible.

Fairview Hospital is the only location on the west side to offer a 24/7 dedicated pediatric emergency department. You’ll sit comfortably in a waiting room separate from the often faster-paced, critical backdrop of the adult emergency room. A staff member will greet you in the waiting area and move you and your child to one of 16 child-friendly private exam rooms for registration and care.

Using child-sized equipment for improved comfort, diagnoses and treatment, the team will assess your child and can immediately move forward with the most appropriate care plan, whether that is treatment and release to home with follow-up guidelines, admittance to our full pediatric inpatient unit, and Cleveland Clinic Children’s pediatric surgeons and specialists. In advanced situations, Cleveland Clinic Children’s provides a Critical Care Transport team, available 24/7, to transport seriously ill infants or children to our main campus hospital by ambulance or aircraft for more specialized care.

To learn more about Cleveland Clinic Children’s Pediatric Emergency Department at Fairview Hospital, visit fairviewhospital.org/pedsED.

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