Holding and restraining children for clinical procedures: A scoping review of health professional reported and observed practice.

Holding and restraining children during non-urgent clinical procedures continues to be surrounded by uncertainty and mired in controversy. This review aimed to locate, appraise and map the evidence related to health professionals reported and observed practice of holding and restraining children, from birth to 16 years, for clinical procedures. This scoping review, conducted in April 2022, was based on the Joanna Briggs Institute protocol. Screening and full text review resulted in the inclusion of 30 papers. In total, 14 different terms were used to refer to the act of holding or restraining a child for a procedure, in many papers the action of holding was not defined. Professionals report the main factors influencing their decisions to use restraint and/or holding were the age of a child, with younger children being restrained or held most frequently; a child's behaviour; and concerns around a child's safety. Professionals also report that they can perceive pressure from parent/carers to hold or restrain their child and describe how holding practices can be influenced by service and organisational pressures. Health professionals, mainly nurses, continue to report ethical and moral tensions linked to their involvement in the restraint or holding of a child against their will for a clinical procedure. Evidence indicates a need to move practice forward as the issues identified in paediatric practice are long-standing and historical.

Developing and validating a 2D digital version of the Brazilian Children's anxiety questionnaire.

PURPOSE: This study aims to transpose the printed Brazilian Children's Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ BR) into a 2D digital format, validate it with nurses and hospitalized children, and analyze the association between the printed and 2D digital format versions. DESIGN AND METHOD: This is a descriptive and multicentric study, conducted from 2021 to 2022 on working in pediatric care at two hospitals in Brazil. The nurses analyzed the printed and digital instruments and subsequently applied them to a child and proposed suggestions. A cutoff score of 0.80 on the content validity index was used; items that scored an average lower than the CVI in the study were adequate. Eighty children responded to the questionnaires sequentially according to the randomization table. A 90% agreement rate was used. RESULTS: The digital instrument was validated in content by 51 experts, with a CVI of 0.95. Face validation data for 80 children (mean age = 7.9 years) shows a 90% agreement rate. The intraclass correlation index for the general score was 0.87 and 95% CI (0.79-0.91), which shows good stability of the children's responses in both questionnaires. In addition, 59% (n = 47) of the children reported a preference for the digital questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: The digital CAQ BR can be used as an audiovisual instrument by nurses when implementing the systematization of nursing care in pediatrics. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The digital 2D version was successfully applied and can be used in hospitals to measure children's self-reported anxiety.

Educational intervention through a comic book for preoperative anxiety in children, adolescents, and their parents: A randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Reducing preoperative anxiety can help optimize surgical care. AIM: To analyze the effectiveness of verbal guidance by nurses versus verbal guidance combined with a comic book on preoperative anxiety in children and their parents. METHODS: We conducted a randomized parallel, two-group controlled clinical trial in the pediatric ward and a blinded anxiety assessment in the operating room of a Brazilian hospital. Individuals aged 6-14 years undergoing surgical procedures of up to 4 h for the first time were included in the study. Parents who were adults, literate, and able to communicate verbally were included. The primary outcome was the children's anxiety, measured by the Children Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ), Visual Analog Scale (VAS), and the modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale (mYPAS); the secondary outcome was the parents' anxiety, assessed by the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale. Participants were divided into the intervention (IG; n = 60) and control (CG; n = 60) groups. FINDINGS: The two groups were homogeneous. The median age of the children was 8 years. No significant differences were observed in the CAQ and VAS scores between the two assessment time points or in the mYPAS scores between the IG and CG. However, parents' anxiety significantly decreased in both groups. APPLICATION TO PRACTICE: Preoperative guidance by nurses, either verbal only or verbal information with a comic book proved beneficial in reducing parental anxiety. However, both interventions, performed on the day of surgery, failed to reduce preoperative anxiety in children and adolescents upon admission to the operating room. We recommended the process of preparing the child should begin after scheduling the surgery.

Children's Anxiety and Factors Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Study Using the Children's Anxiety Questionnaire and the Numerical Rating Scale.

The repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's lives deserve attention. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of anxiety among Brazilian children and its associated factors during social distancing during COVID-19. We used a cross-sectional design with an online survey from April to May 2020 in Brazil. We included children aged 6-12 years and their guardians. The Children's Anxiety Questionnaire (CAQ; scores 4-12) and the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS; scores 0-10) were used to measure anxiety. We enrolled 157 girls and 132 boys, with a mean age of 8.84 (±2.05) years; 88.9% of respondents were mothers. Based on CAQ ≥ 9, the prevalence of anxiety was 19.4% (n = 56), and higher among children with parents with essential jobs and those who were social distancing without parents. In logistic regression, the following variables were associated with higher CAQ scores: social distancing without parents; more persons living together in home; and education level of guardians. Based on NRS > 7, the prevalence of anxiety was 21.8% (n = 63); however, no associations with NRS scores were found with the investigated variables. These findings suggest the necessity of implementing public health actions targeting these parents and their children at the population level.