The effects of therapeutic play on angiography procedures in children: a randomised controlled trial

This study investigated the effects of therapeutic play on angiography in children aged 4–10.

Our study was conducted as a randomised controlled experimental trial with 70 (experimental: 35, control: 35) children undergoing angiography at the paediatric cardiology clinic of a university hospital between 1 January 2022 and 31 August 2022. The “Child Information Form”, “Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale”, “Children’s Fear Scale”, “Children’s Anxiety Meter-State” and “Doll Model” were used for data collection. Percentage, mean, pearson correlation, ANOVA were used in the evaluation of the data.

It was found that 57.1% of the children who participated in our study were female, their mean age was 6.48±2.36 years, 45.7% had the diagnosis of Atrial Septal Defect (ASD), 78.6% had not undergone any surgery before and 60% were hospitalised for follow-up. It was found that the difference between pain, fear and anxiety scores of the children after the therapeutic play programme was statistically significant (p ˂ 0.05).

Our study found that therapeutic play programmes can reduce pain, fear and anxiety in children. These findings demonstrate that negative experiences during invasive procedures affect children not only physiologically, but also psychologically and behaviourally. Therapeutic play can therefore be a powerful supportive intervention. Therefore, we recommend integrating therapeutic play into nursing clinical guidelines and care protocols, and providing paediatric nurses with training in this area.