Original Research Article
Year: 2019 | Month: July | Volume: 9 | Issue: 7 | Pages: 102-106
Pain Level of Infants Receiving Helfer Skin Tap during Vaccination
Blessy Peter1, Dr. Bindhu Mathew2
1Research Scholar, JJT University, Jhunjunu, Rajasthan
2Professor & HOD, Medical Surgical Nursing, St. Johns National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India
Corresponding Author: Blessy Peter
ABSTRACT
Background for the study: As part of the Immunization schedule every child in India are exposed to numerous injections between the ages of 0-1 year, which inflict pain for children. If the pain is not addressed it causes pre procedural anxiety in the future and fear about needles which may lead to non-adherence to vaccination. Various recommendations and practices are experimented to reduce the pain during vaccination in children and one among the technique is Helfer skin tap which is proved to reduce the pain in infants. The present study intended to assess the pain during intramuscular injection using Helfer skin tap among children at selected hospitals of Pathanamthitta district.
Methodology: The investigator followed a quantitative approach and the research design used in this study is one group posttest only design. The total sample size was 70 children between 0 to 12 months. Gate control theory of pain was the conceptual framework adopted and standardized FLACC Pain scale was used to assess the pain level of children.
Results: The result reveals that the majority (57%) of children has experienced mild pain with the technique of Helfer skin tap in children. There was no significant association between variables under study and the pain score obtained. The study explores a method namely Helfer skin tap for minimizing the pain experienced during vaccination in infants.
Key words: infants, Helfer skin tap, pain, gate control theory