Electronic Textiles Final Project

Electronic Textiles Final Project: Welcome

Topic Selection

I want to create a patch that can be placed onto a doctors white coat or a nurses scrubs in the place of a pocket. This patch will have sensory objects (pom-pom balls, beads, bells, etc.) with a circuit playground express sewn in. The circuit playground express will have a forever loop of colors when various items are touched. The purpose of the patch is so kids who are receiving immunizations or other invasive medical procedures can be distracted and forget about what is happening. The scattered sensory objects that will also be on the patch will provide sensory stimulation which will only help in distracting the child. There has been research conducted on the benefits of distractions during medical procedures such as immunizations. However, there is not one specific combination of stimuli made into a product available for easy access to nurses or doctors.

As a part of routine and specialized health care, children have to undergo many invasive types of medical procedures such as immunizations (MacLaren & Cohen, 2007). These types of medical procedures are anxiety provoking and painful, especially for younger children ages 1-3 years old. Jacobsen et al reported that as many as 45% of 4-6 year old children experience “serious or severe distress” during immunization procedures. These events can cause different types of distress, that can result in restraining of the child or physical altercations like kicking. Additionally, it effects their overall corporation with future immunizations or procedures. There are many types of strategies used for procedural pain management, among them being pharmacological interventions, physical interventions, behavioral interventions, and lastly distractions (MacLaren & Cohen, 2007). The most thoroughly evaluated method of strategy among these is distraction. This study used many distractions such as party blowers, cartoon movies and music and revealed that they were efficient in distracting the child. Distractions are also appealing in that they are time and cost efficient (MacLaren & Cohen, 2007). Most of these distractions demonstrated both statistical and clinical significance and were time and cost efficient to implement, and were the most effecive strategies.

Pediatric pain from medical procedures results in short-term suffering but can cause long-term detrimental effects (Cohen, 2008). Specifically, early painful procedures might have lasting negative effects on neuronal development, pain threshold and sensitivity, coping strategies, emotionality and pain perceptions (Cohen, 2008). Additional distraction stimuli included in this study were movies, interactive toy robots, virtual-reality goggles, music, blowing-bubbles, and short stories (Cohen, 2008). Some distracting stimuli might induce behaviors that are incompatible with stress, such as laughing when watching a funny movie or hearing a funny sound (Cohen, 2008). Regardless of the specific reason, distraction seems to be an excellent idea for pain-management intervention in children.

For some time now, children’s distress associated with medical procedures has been a long standing concern of pediatric clinicians and researchers (Cohen, 2002). Health care professionals have to take on the dual challenges of providing necessary medical treatment, like immunizations, while also preventing any unnecessary discomfort (Cohen, 2002). Children’s distress behaviors during even routine medical procedures can be sufficiently severe to interfere and even delay the procedure and call for additional staff assistance (Cohen, 2002). Distractions are an efficient way to help lower children’s distress with medical procedures like immunizations. Thus, the need for a specific device to fill this gap while also being time and cost efficient.

This literature review demonstrates that there is a need for a specific distrcation device in the medical field. This device will be aimed at assisting doctors or nurses in medical procedures such as immunizations for children. Not only will this device distract the child with fun colors and conductive bells, but it will also provide tactile sensory stimulation for the child as another form of distraction. This device will require a one-time training session, thus representing cost efficiency as well as time efficiency. Additionally, nurses or doctors can customiza their own patches for their patients or their own preference.

Materials Needed: