Medical Clowning and Patient Experiences in a Children's Hospital

Not Applicable

Completed

• Conditions: Day Surgery
• Interventions: Behavioral: Medical clowning

• Registration Number: NCT04312217
• Lead Sponsor: Helsinki University Central Hospital

Brief Summary

A case-control study is conducted in Helsinki Children's hospital. Altogether 70 children aged 4-17 years coming for a minor operative procedure including pre-operative cannula insertion will be included. Part of the patients will be exposed to medical clowning intervention and the reference group will be treated preoperatively as routinely without clowns. Emotions, anxiety levels, pain caused by the cannula insertion of the children will be monitored during the day. A survey on the emotions and expectations of the parents will be done.

Detailed Description

This study aims to measure experiences of children and their parents during day-surgery in hospital setting.

A case-control study is conducted in Helsinki Children's hospital. Altogether 70 children aged 4-17 years coming for a minor operative procedure including pre-operative cannula insertion will be included. Part of the patients will be exposed to medical clowning intervention and the reference group will be treated preoperatively as routinely without clowns. Emotions, anxiety levels, pain caused by the cannula insertion of the children will be monitored during the day. A survey on the emotions and expectations of the parents will be done.

A novel digital survey tool will be used to measure patient experiences before and after the insertion of a venous cannula needed for anaesthesia.

The research questions are as follows:

How does engagement with a medical clown during pre-operative cannulation impact on children and their parents' patient experience? How feasible is a novel data collection tool for measuring patient experience and the impact of an intervention on the patient experience of families?

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2018-05-14
• Primary Completion: 2018-06-30
• Study Completion: 2018-06-30
• Status Verified: 2020-03
• Study First Submitted: 2020-03-12
• Study First Submitted QC: 2020-03-16
• Last Update Submitted: 2020-03-16
• Study First Posted: 2020-03-18
• Last Update Posted: 2020-03-18

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 70

Inclusion Criteria

• a patient coming for a day surgery (any) procedure in Helsinki Children's Hospital
• understands the Finnish language,
• between 4 and 17 years of age and
• the procedure includes the insertion of a venous cannula.

Exclusion Criteria

• does not understand the Finnish language
• the child is under 4 years old or 18 years or older
• the procedure does not include the insertion of a cannula but for example mask anaesthesia

Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Medical clowning	Medical clowning	Preoperative medical clown exposure

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in emotional status	Baseline and 2 hours	Self reported emotions selected from a list of 11 emotional items. Assessment at baseline and after recovering from anesthesia.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Change in anxiety status	Baseline and 2 hours	Self reported anxiety at a scale 1-5. (1=none,..5=very much). Assessment at baseline and after recovering from anesthesia.

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Helsinki Children's Hospital; 🇫🇮 Helsinki, Finland