Child life specialist services, practice, and utilization across health care: a scoping review.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review was to map the available evidence regarding the scope of child life specialist services, practice, and utilization. INTRODUCTION: Child life specialists are members of multidisciplinary health care system teams who prioritize the developmental needs of pediatric patients to support and improve patient and family health care experiences. Evidence of the effectiveness of child life specialist services and the utilization of those services is often incorporated in multidisciplinary research reports and thus overlooked. INCLUSION CRITERIA: All quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research study reports and systematic reviews investigating child life specialist services, practice, and utilization in health care systems were included. METHODS: This review was guided by the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and a published a priori protocol. CINAHL (EBSCOhost), MEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, and PsycINFO (APA) were searched for evidence published from January 1980 to August 2022. RESULTS: Research publications about child life specialist services, practice, and utilization have increased dramatically over the past decade with more than 50% of studies published in the last 5 years. Although the first authors of the majority of the research publications were physicians, these multidisciplinary author teams depicted child life specialist services in a variety of roles, including co-investigators, interventionists, and research subjects. The 105 full-text publications reviewed were from 10 countries and occurred across a wide scope of health care settings and medical subspecialties, but primarily in hospitals and health centers, and to a lesser extent, in ambulatory clinics and communities. A wide variety of child life specialist services were described across these settings. CONCLUSION: The concept of child life services began in 1922 and emerged as the child life specialist services specialty in the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. Mapping the research can help delineate the barriers and facilitators to these services in health care systems. This scoping review provides evidence of the global diffusion of child life specialist services across health care system settings with recent increases in research publications involving child life specialist services.

Mixed Methods Assessment of Incivility During Surgical Mortality and Morbidity Conference.

OBJECTIVE: This study assessed incivility during Mortality and Morbidity (M&M) Conference. BACKGROUND: A psychologically safe environment at M&M Conference enables generative discussions to improve care. Incivility and exclusion demonstrated by "shame and blame" undermine generative discussion. METHODS: We used a convergent mixed-methods design to collect qualitative data through non-participant observations of M&M conference and quantitative data through standardized survey instruments of M&M participants. The M&M conference was attended by attending surgeons (all academic ranks), fellows, residents, medical students on surgery rotation, advanced practice providers, and administrators from the department of surgery. A standardized observation guide was developed, piloted and adapted based on expert non-participant feedback. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule Short-Form (PANAS) and the Uncivil Behavior in Clinical Nursing Education (UBCNE) survey instruments were distributed to the Department of Surgery clinical faculty and categorical general surgery residents in an academic medical center. RESULTS: We observed 11 M&M discussions of 30 cases, over six months with four different moderators. Case presentations (virtual format) included clinical scenario, decision-making, operative management, complications, and management of the complications. Discussion was free form, without a standard structure. The central theme that limited discussion participation from attending surgeon of record, as well as absence of a systems-approach discussion led to blame and blame then set the stage for incivility. Among 147 eligible to participate in the survey, 54 (36.7%) responded. Assistant professors had a 2.60 higher Negative Affect score (p-value=0.02), a 4.13 higher Exclusion Behavior score (p-value=0.03), and a 7.6 higher UBCNE score (p-value=0.04) compared to associate and full professors. Females had a 2.7 higher Negative Affect Score compared to males (p-value=0.04). CONCLUSION: Free-form M&M discussions led to incivility. Structuring discussion to focus upon improving care may create inclusion and more generative discussions to improve care.

Reducing Intraoperative Hypothermia in Infants from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

Infants from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) undergoing surgery in the operating room (OR) are at greater risk for hypothermia during surgery than afterward due to environmental heat loss, anesthesia, and inconsistent temperature monitoring. A multidisciplinary team aimed to reduce hypothermia (<36.1 °C) for infants at a level IV NICU at the beginning of the operation (first OR temperature) or at any time during the operation (lowest OR temperature) by 25%. Methods: The team followed preoperative, intraoperative (first, lowest, and last OR), and postoperative temperatures. It sought to reduce intraoperative hypothermia using the "Model for Improvement" by standardizing temperature monitoring, transport, and OR warming, including raising ambient OR temperatures to 74°F. Temperature monitoring was continuous, secure, and automated. The balancing metric was postoperative hyperthermia (>38 °C). Results: Over 4 years, there were 1235 operations: 455 in the baseline and 780 in the intervention period. The percentage of infants experiencing hypothermia upon OR arrival and at any point during the operation decreased from 48.7% to 6.4% and 67.5% to 37.4%, respectively. Upon return to the NICU, the percentage of infants experiencing postoperative hypothermia decreased from 5.8% to 2.1%, while postoperative hyperthermia increased from 0.8% to 2.6%. Conclusions: Intraoperative hypothermia is more prevalent than postoperative hypothermia. Standardizing temperature monitoring, transport, and OR warming reduces both; however, further reduction requires a better understanding of how and when risk factors contribute to hypothermia to avoid further increasing hyperthermia. Continuous, secure, and automated data collection improved temperature management by enhancing situational awareness and facilitating data analysis.

Child life specialist practice and utilization across health care: a scoping review protocol.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this review is to map the available evidence regarding the scope of child life specialist practice and utilization. INTRODUCTION: Child life specialists provide developmentally appropriate and emotion-focused supportive interventions that aim to build coping skills, enhance resilience, and mitigate traumatic experiences during health care encounters. Evidence of the care provided by a child life specialist is spread throughout health care literature. It is an emerging field that is aligned with a heightened focus on mental health and emotional safety. Evidence for the efficacy of child life specialists continues to grow. INCLUSION CRITERIA: Mapping the current evidence will capture the breadth of services provided by child life specialists. This scoping review will consider all evidence that reports on services provided by child life specialists, including across all quantitative and qualitative study designs, systematic reviews, and scoping reviews. The review will also include child life specialist workforce studies, such as child life specialist utilization, geographic availability, multidisciplinary team integration, and clinician-focused research. Case studies or narrative experiences outside of a qualitative research methodology, descriptions of program implementation, educational surveys, and quality improvement projects will be excluded from the scoping review. METHODS: JBI methodology for scoping reviews will guide the review process. Literature published from 1980 to the present will be included. Databases to be searched include PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, and CINAHL. The search for unpublished evidence will include Google Scholar and OpenGrey. Extracted data will be presented in tabular format with accompanying narrative summary.

Invisible Work: Advanced Practice Providers' Role in the Education of Surgeons.

OBJECTIVE: As the composition and work of surgical teams evolve, the role of advanced practice providers (APPs) has expanded. We explored how APPs influence the training experience of surgeons from the perspectives of faculty, residents, and APPs. DESIGN: Qualitative data were obtained from semi-structured open-ended interviews. A codebook was developed blending deductive and inductive logics. Dyads independently coded the transcripts using a constant comparative approach; differences were reconciled by consensus. RESULTS: During 2-day site visits to 15 general surgery programs, 393 individual and small focus group interviews were conducted with residents, faculty, staff, and program leadership. Forty transcripts representing 51 interviewees (15 APPs, 23 residents, 13 faculty) were collected. We identified 4 major themes:1 APP as Educator: APPs play a significant role in resident education to ensure seamless patient care while allowing trainees room for clinical growth.2 Canary in the Coal Mine: APPs often are the first to notice a surgical trainee's mood and provide support to improve wellness.3 Division of Labor: Distribution of clinical workload has a direct impact on surgical trainees' educational experience and APP job satisfaction.4 Second-Class Citizen: APPs described experiences in which their expertise was disrespected, and their contributions were unrecognized. CONCLUSIONS: APPs have an active and essential role in the well-being and education of surgeons during training. Surgical residency programs and hospitals have an opportunity to decrease the "invisibility" of the work of APPs through increased recognition of these roles and elevation of APP expertise through formal career development pathways.

Parental Decision-Making for Surgery and Anesthesia in Young Children.

Millions of young children undergo surgery and anesthesia each year, yet there is a lack of scientific consensus about the safety of anesthesia exposure for the developing brain. Also poorly understood is parental anesthesia-related decision-making and how neurotoxicity information influences their choices. The theoretical model of parental decision-making generated in this research explicates this process. Interviews with 24 mothers yielded a theoretical framework based on their narratives developed using a qualitative grounded theory analysis. Five major themes emerged from these interviews: emotional processing, cognitive processing, relationships as resources, the mother/child dyad, and the health care context. Mothers described a non-linear, iterative process; they moved fluidly through emotional and cognitive processing supported by relationships as resources and influenced by the health care context. A key element was the subtheme of the medical translator, an individual who provided context and information. The mother/child dyad grounded the model in the relationship with the child.

Anesthesia Exposure in the Young Child and Long-term Cognition: An Integrated Review.

Millions of children every year undergo seemingly safe general anesthetics for surgical procedures and imaging studies. Anesthetic agents have been shown to cause detrimental effects on brain cell survival and cognitive function in animals. As a result, the safety of general anesthetics in children is an active field of investigation. The objective of this review is to evaluate the human research on anesthesia neurotoxicity in the young child. Three databases were searched for studies on anesthesia exposure in infants and children. Positive clinical outcomes in several studies showed no difference in cognitive function between children exposed and unexposed to anesthesia. Research findings also demonstrated negative clinical outcomes following anesthesia exposure, including physical changes on magenetic resonance imaging such as lower gray matter density in the occipital cortex and cerebellum; lower scores on performance IQ, listening comprehension, and expressive language; overrepresentation in the lowest fifth percentile of academic achievement; and increased risk of learning disabilities. More studies are needed that simultaneously measure cognitive function, physical changes, and disability risk to learn how these factors interact in the human brain.

Tablet-based Interactive Distraction (TBID) vs oral midazolam to minimize perioperative anxiety in pediatric patients: a noninferiority randomized trial.

INTRODUCTION: Perioperative anxiety is a common and undesirable outcome in pediatric surgical patients. The use of interactive tools to minimize perioperative anxiety is vastly understudied. The main objective of the current investigation was to compare the effects of a tablet-based interactive distraction (TBID) tool to oral midazolam on perioperative anxiety. We hypothesized that the TBID tool was not inferior to midazolam to reduce perioperative anxiety. METHODS: 108 children, ages 1-11 years, presenting for outpatient surgical procedures were prospectively randomized to oral midazolam (0.5 mg·kg(-1); 20 mg max) or TBID. The primary outcome was the change in anxiety level from baseline to parental separation and anesthetic induction. Other data collected included emergence delirium, parental satisfaction, time-to-PACU discharge, and posthospitalization behavior. RESULTS: The mean difference (95% CI) in the increase of anxiety at parental separation between the TBID and the midazolam group was -9 (-2.6 to -16.4), P = 0.006, demonstrating superiority to midazolam group (one-sided P = 0.003). For children 2-11 years, the mean difference (95% CI) in anxiety at induction was significant between the TBID and midazolam groups, -14.0 (-6.1 to -22.0), P < 0.001. The median (IQR) time-to-PACU discharge was 111 (75-197) min in the midazolam group and 87 (55-137) min in the TBID group, P = 0.03. Decreased emergence delirium and increased parental satisfaction were also observed in the TBID group. CONCLUSIONS: A TBID tool reduces perioperative anxiety, emergence delirium, and time-to-discharge and increases parental satisfaction when compared to midazolam in pediatric patients undergoing ambulatory surgery.