Emotional Safety in Pediatrics

Dell Children’s Medical Center welcomes the release of a new paper, “Emotional Safety in Pediatrics,” detailing the top pillars to mitigate and prevent pediatric medical traumatic stress in healthcare settings through emotional safety. The paper, authored by the Association of Child Life Professionals (ACLP) — a nonprofit organization focused on advancing the field of child life by establishing and maintaining professional standards of child life practices, is part of ACLP’s new “Emotional Safety Initiative,” a movement to prioritize emotional safety at the same level as physical safety in all pediatric medical experiences.

Emotional safety, as defined by ACLP, is an intentional, interdisciplinary practice to promote resiliency, healing, and trust for pediatric patients and their families during medical experiences, such as experiencing a sudden or life-threatening illness or injury, undergoing a painful or frightening treatment procedure, or simply just being in a hospital or emergency room.

“Medical professionals, like child life specialists, aim to continuously adapt and develop their approach in caring for patients to ensure emotional safety is a priority. With the release of this paper, we hope to promote and encourage healthcare workers to establish both emotionally and physically safe environments and provide equitable care to our nation’s children and their families,” said Kim Stephens, President of the Association of Child Life Professionals and Director of Child Life and Expressive Therapies at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

The paper written by Child Life professionals including Dell Children’s child life specialist, Kelly Wagner, MS, CCLS, synthesizes numerous medical resources, studies, and practices which contribute to child life, all supporting the need for medical systems to equally prioritize children’s emotional safety alongside physical safety in healthcare planning. When forming treatment plans for pediatric patients, medical professionals tend to overlook the potential emotional effects of their work, which could result in additional injury. The paper makes clear that it is important that for every physical action taken, healthcare systems must also address and mitigate the emotional impact. At Dell Children’s Medical Center, the child life staff have been trained to implement emotional safety in their treatment plans for pediatric patients and families to feel emotionally safe, including the creation of coping plans when a child needs to have a procedure, developmentally appropriate preparation and education, and therapeutic play opportunities.

According to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 80% of children and their families experience some traumatic stress following medical treatment for life-threatening illnesses or injuries. Traumatic damage can also be brought upon by actions or comments by healthcare professionals that don’t consider the unique developmental and coping needs of children, resulting in long-lasting impacts on a patient’s physical and mental wellbeing.

While emotional safety is the responsibility of everyone in a hospital, this work is headquartered in child life services. The evidence-based methods used by child life specialists are woven into the four pillars of emotional safety, which are explored throughout the paper and practiced by child life staff at Dell Children’s Medical Center These include:

⦁ Screening and Assessment — Identifies the patient and family perceptions, experiences, needs, and strengths, in order to explore and implement emotionally safe strategies.
⦁ Intervention — Focuses on the commitment to a child’s comfort and understanding regarding medical encounters.
⦁ Environment — Uses evidence-based practice to promote safe and reliable environments that minimize stress and promote emotional safety for patients, families, and healthcare professionals.
⦁ Education, Training, and Communication — Facilitates collaborative relationships
to develop helpful communication strategies among the interdisciplinary team, the patient, and their support systems.