Consolation tips

If your child has a minor accident you will need to be a sympathetic nurse. Here are a few useful tips for consoling the patient.

• Don’t let children see blood; once you put a plaster on the wound they soon feel better.

• Keep calm and avoid overreacting. Keep smiling, treat the wound carefully and distract the child with games or music.

• Put a small sweet carefully over the injury and explain that the pain has crawled into the sweet and once it is eaten, then the “ouch” is all gone.

• You can say to the child, “Look! The ouch is flying up and away!” and when the child is looking up you add, “Puff, now it’s already gone!”

If the child continues to complain about the pain, don’t try to distract it with children’s games. Discuss the pain with your patient. The child needs to feel that the pain is taken seriously and remember, you are the nurse.