Effects of Attire on Pediatric Patient's Participation

Patient participation is needed in order to provide timely and effective patient care. Therefore, patients of all ages are needed to engage and verbalize their changing symptoms and status; however, a common problem in healthcare when dealing with pediatric patients is that they are intimidated or scared by the medical staff. So, unconventional attire and costumes have been studied and incorporated into patient care. The criteria for this research was that the patients needed to be admitted and within 0 to 21 years old as this is the population at the community partner, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. A volunteer studied this topic over 8 weeks. The first 8 weeks required no intervention as the volunteer wore their traditional uniform while in the second 8 weeks the intervention of wearing a non-traditional uniform was implemented. Pediatric boy patients responded faster to this intervention with higher rates of participation. In contrast, pediatric girl patients only marginally increased their participation. Together, these findings suggest that unconventional costumes and attire help deliver patient-centered and effective care in all patients.