Pop-Up Books used to ease Child Patients' Anxiety

 

Holly Cordray is a senior majoring in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology. She was awarded a Fall 2020 Independent Grant which she used to conduct research at Children's Healthcare Atlanta.

My name is Holly Cordray, and I am a senior in the Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology Honors Program.  Collaborating with Dr. Kara Prickett, a pediatric ENT surgeon at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, I am currently running a 150-patient clinical trial of an interactive resource I developed for pediatric patient education: an educational pop-up book for children facing surgery.  I began this project in 2019 with the support of the SURE program and my mentor in the Art History department, Dr. Tasha Dobbin-Bennett.  I wanted to build a resource that would engage children in active learning through hands-on features like flaps, wheels, and pull-tabs, equipping patients with understanding and positive coping strategies as they prepare for surgery.  I am hoping this ready-made resource will become a more practical alternative to guided preparation programs, offering families and healthcare providers child-focused education as convenient as educational brochures.  For pediatric patients, effective education matters: it facilitates smoother surgical care, better postoperative recovery, and more positive continuing attitudes toward medical care. 

In the spring of 2020, I began working with Dr. Prickett at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to set up a study of the pop-up book.  Over the late spring and summer, we developed a protocol with several different outcome measures, evaluating whether the book more effectively eases anxiety and encourages positive coping strategies than standard counselling from the healthcare provider.  Since August 2020, I have been working directly with patients at the Children’s Outpatient Surgery Center, reading the pop-up book with patients to help them understand what to expect and assessing how the book affects perceptions and behavior.  The Emory Independent Research Grant has helped me commute to Duluth every day to carry out the study (fortunately, the surgeries start early enough that I usually have enough time to wrap up my work before class!).  Through the NBB Honors Program, I am also writing a thesis on active learning in pediatric preoperative education.

Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, working in the clinical setting has been a terrific experience, and it has made me even more sure that I want to pursue a career in pediatric surgery.  At the Surgery Center, I work closely with the preoperative and OR nurses as well as the anesthesiology team, and I am hugely grateful of how welcoming and encouraging they have been toward me as I joined into the Surgery Center’s flow.  When I am finished for the day or have downtime in my work, I often shadow in the OR, which has given me exposure to a range of different specialties—otolaryngology, gastroenterology, urology, and general surgery.  These opportunities have offered great preparation for medical school, and my direct interactions with patients have given me firsthand experience with the patient-facing side of medical care.  I am tremendously excited about this project, and it has been thrilling to see the book make a difference for patients.  I look forward to sharing our results through a journal article and conferences, and ultimately, I aim to advocate for more effective, child-focused patient education throughout my career.