Many of us remember, from first-hand experience as a parent or relative, what it means for a child to interface with the hospital environment. Admissions or even simple blood samples can become traumatic experiences.
Today, various techniques exist to alleviate the emotional impact on children, and with the advent of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and robotics, the possibilities for support are increasing.
Stress and anxiety in hospital
Why can hospital admissions or interactions with medical procedures generate stress or trauma? Scientific studies show that the cause is mainly anxiety, which can lead to anger. These emotions can reduce children’s cooperation with health personnel and their ability to cope with medical treatment.
When children are confronted with new people and environments, they inevitably become insecure and hesitant. Their greatest fear is the unknown. The situation is aggravated when, during hospitalisation or emergency visits, children are already subjected to suffering and pain.
In these cases, it is important for doctors, nurses and caregivers to rely on techniques to reduce anxiety in children.
Approaches to reduce anxiety in children
Open and challenging dialogue
Research shows that an open approach by clinicians can reduce anxiety and improve cooperation in young patients. In a study of 32 children between the ages of 2 and 14 undergoing treatment for leukaemia, clinicians talked to the children to calm them down during painful procedures and encouraged drawing activities to help them express their emotions.
The results were surprising: the children were much more cooperative during the procedures and the parents more able to cope.
Inclusive and familiar environment
Another approach that helps reduce children’s anxiety in hospital is the creation of a familiar and joyful environment. Decorating ceilings and walls with patterns and colours helps children to settle in and, consequently, reduce anxiety levels.
A successful case study is that of Sheffield Children’s Hospital, where designer Morag Myerscough redesigned more than 40 rooms and corridors, following four different designs, each characterised by a different degree of brightness and intended for a specific age group and medical condition. The colour pale blue, for example, was used for children who are more sensitive to bright colours, such as those with autism.
Play therapy
Visits from playful characters or dressing up by clinical staff help to create a more positive atmosphere that helps patients distract themselves and thus relieve anxiety.
At Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, distraction is used as a therapeutic approach to help children cope with more invasive hospital procedures. There are, in fact, so-called “play specialists” who use distraction with the aim of diverting the child’s attention from the medical procedure and its pain.
Animal care
Not only games, actors and clowns, animals are also used in some paediatric care facilities as a tool to promote the physical, mental and emotional well-being of hospitalised children and their parents.
A comparative study showed that hospitalised children treated with animal care significantly reduced their perception of pain and blood pressure levels compared to children not receiving the therapy.
Social robots as a new approach
Social robots are increasingly present in healthcare centres, not only as support for staff in repetitive tasks but also as a tool to generate new interactions with particularly frail patients.
Although the use of social robots for the well-being of children is a relatively new field compared to applications for the elderly, Italy is the country with the largest number of scientific publications on the subject.
In the paediatric field, social robots act in a similar way to other stress and anxiety reduction approaches, distracting children from medical procedures. Be it playful conversations, storytelling, therapeutic activities such as the administration of anamnestic questionnaires or explanations of a therapy, robots represent a new way for clinical staff to connect with young patients on an emotional level, thus becoming an important tool to alleviate patients’ apprehensions and create a more positive hospital experience.
Compared to other media, the robot seems to have an edge. In fact, an MIT experimental study showed that in a hospital setting, children are more eager to emotionally connect and physically interact with a robot than with a virtual character.
Another important study carried out in Japan has experimentally demonstrated how robots reduce stress and anxiety in hospitalised children, particularly when used to help parents or caregivers.
Aphel: the robot tailor-made for young patients
Among the different types of humanoid robots available to hospitals, Aphel differs in that it is a “human-sized” robot that allows for more natural interactions.
Aphel is also supported by a software platform that allows medical staff, even without IT skills, to easily modify the robot’s mode of operation and interactions so that it can be used in various ways (reception, entertainment, test administration, storytelling).
Thanks to its features, Aphel is used at the Paediatric Oncology Department of the Santissima Annunziata Hospital in Taranto. Here, it supports children in day hospital or in hospitalisation, helping them to overcome anxieties and fears about blood samples, bone marrow aspirates, biopsies and gastroscopies.
Conclusions
In a world where the hospital experience can be stressful and painful, these approaches not only help distract children during medical procedures but also offer valuable emotional support, helping to create a caring environment that promotes well-being and healing.
With tools like Aphel, we are able to offer personalised, reassuring support that can make the hospital journey less stressful for children and more effective for clinicians.
