Effects of Play Therapy on the Pain Management of Post-Operative Pediatric Patients

Abstract

Studies on play therapy in other disciplines have been done but post-operative pain management in pediatric patients has not been considered.  This study determined the effects of play therapy using storytelling, bubble blowing, singing and film viewing on the pain management of post-operative pediatric patients.  The single-group pretest-posttest design was employed. Post-operative pediatric patients of the orthopedic ward ages 2-7 years old assessed to have acute pain were chosen; seven out of 12 patients qualified and were given a pretest to assess the level of pain.  Experimental treatment was administered; a posttest was administered thereafter. The level of pain was assessed before and after the intervention with the use of Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale, FLACC technique scale to assess the behavior and assessment of the vital signs.  Play was used as the intervention and significant differences in the level of alleviated pain using self-assessment was computed by getting the decrement level of pain from pre to post assessment and subjecting it to the Kruskal-Wallis test. Storytelling was found to be the most effective resulting to lowered respiratory rate, heart rate and a normal blood pressure reading; however, it did not prove statistical significance as indicated by p-values greater than the 0.05 alpha level.  Computed W coefficients associated with p-values revealed that pre-assessment data results were statistically different from the post-assessment data results in terms of self, behavioral and physiological assessments across the four types of play. The pain decrement from the pretest to posttest was statistically significant. A pain management program was proposed.