Trick of the Trade: Pediatric Distractors

Remember back in the day when we made simple toys for pediatric patients to focus on during the physical exam? Remember the inflated medical glove +/- a face drawn on it?

I just encountered a FREE iPhone application (Eye Handbook), which has a lot of useful features. I currently only use the Pediatric Fixation animations. They can be found under the “Testing” section. Kids (and often adults too!) become mesmerized and distracted by the cartoon animations.

Trick of the Trade: Style points in pediatric orthopedics

With this hot summer season in California, kids have been running around and getting into all sorts of orthopedic troubles. Monkey bars are a common culprit. In treating pediatric patients in the ED, it’s worth spending an extra few minutes on the subtle style points.

Trick of the Trade:

Splint the buddy bear

You should consider keeping a stash of stuffed teddy bears in the ED for those patients, whom you splint or cast. It is a nice touch to have the patient go home with a teddy bear with the same “injury” and splint/cast.

It’s the little touches that will make your patient’s day a little less sucky.