Enhancing pain management in the PICU by teaching guided mental imagery: a quality-improvement project.
OBJECTIVE
This quality-improvement study, following the PDCA methodology, compared the effectiveness of teaching mental imagery (MI) for pain management versus conducting a detailed inquiry (DI) about pain-related experiences with acutely injured PICU patients.


METHODS
Participants included 44 hospitalized children and adolescents assigned to one of two intervention groups, MI (N = 24) or DI (N = 20). Pain was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale and a 0-10 Likert pain rating scale, and the Pediatric Trauma Score was utilized to assess the severity of each child's injuries.


RESULTS
Boys in the MI condition exhibited a significant decrease in average pain ratings [t(38) = 3.41, p = .0015]. Girls in the MI condition exhibited a non-significant decrease in average pain ratings.


CONCLUSIONS
Teaching children the use of MI for pain management in an intensive-care setting was supported; the use of DI with boys was not supported.
Kline
William H
WH
Division of Child Psychiatry, North Shore-LIJ Health System, USA. billkline9@aol.com
Turnbull
Ayme
A
Labruna
Victor E
VE
Haufler
Laurie
L
DeVivio
Susan
S
Ciminera
Peter
P
D000063:Accidents, Traffic; D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D019018:Imagery, Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D015278:Intensive Care Units, Pediatric; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000523:psychology; D012648:Self Care; D012737:Sex Factors; D017749:Total Quality Management; D016896:Treatment Outcome