Effectiveness of mHealth–Safe Kids Hospital for the prevention of hospitalized children safety incidents: A randomized controlled trial

Il Tae Park, Won Oak Oh, Gwang Cheon Jang, Jihee Han

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Background: Preschool-age children in hospitals are at a high risk of unexpected incidents. Safety incidents in hospitals can cause serious damage to the children. Objective: To determine the effectiveness of the mobile-type mHealth Safe Kids Hospital (SKH) application (app) for the prevention of hospitalized child safety incidents. Design: This study used a three-group, randomized controlled trial pre-post design. Setting(s): This study was conducted in the pediatric ward of three general hospitals in Korea. Participants: A total of 124 eligible hospitalized children and their caregivers were enrolled in the study from June to December 2018. Of these, 116 finally participated in the study, and 8 were excluded because they were discharged before the intervention. Methods: Hospitalized preschool-age children and their caregivers were randomly allocated into three groups: experimental group I (n = 39), experimental group II (n = 39), and the control group (n = 38). Experimental group I received the SKH app intervention, the experimental group II received a paper-based intervention, whereas the control group received the usual intervention. Participants’ outcomes of awareness, knowledge, and behavior related to hospital safety, were assessed at two time points: baseline and 24 h after the intervention. Results: Hospital safety awareness had a higher increase after intervention in experimental groups I and II than in the control group. Among the four subdomains of hospital safety awareness, there was a significant increase in the scores of experimental group I on three subdomains after the intervention: falls (F = 8.19, p < 0.001), burns (F = 6.73, p = 0.002), and medical devices (F = 6.81, p = 0.002). In hospital safety knowledge and safety behavior, experimental group I had the highest average score after the intervention compared with experimental group II and the control group; however, there was no statistically significant difference in the average score of the three groups. Conclusions: Using the SKH app is easy to attract the interest of preschool-age children and is also easy for nurses to use in clinical trials; thus, it is considered to be a useful educational intervention to prevent safety incidents in clinical fields in future. Clinical Relevance: It is thought to contribute to the prevention of preschool-age children's safety incidents in pediatric wards.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)623-633
    Number of pages11
    JournalJournal of Nursing Scholarship
    Volume53
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2021 Sept

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This research was conducted with support from the National Research Foundation of South Korea under grant number NRF-2016R1A2B1015455.Clinical Resources Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Child Safety and Injury Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/safechild/ Ontario. Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Injury Prevention Guideline. https://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/oph_standards/docs/protocols_guidelines/Injury_Prevention_Guideline_2018_en.pdf Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Preventing Falls in Hospitals. https://www.ahrq.gov/patient-safety/settings/hospital/fall-prevention/toolkit/index.html Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Child Safety and Injury Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/safechild/ Ontario. Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Injury Prevention Guideline. https://www.health.gov.on.ca/en/pro/programs/publichealth/oph_standards/docs/protocols_guidelines/Injury_Prevention_Guideline_2018_en.pdf Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Preventing Falls in Hospitals. https://www.ahrq.gov/patient-safety/settings/hospital/fall-prevention/toolkit/index.html

    Funding Information:
    This research was conducted with support from the National Research Foundation of South Korea under grant number NRF‐2016R1A2B1015455. Clinical Resources

    Publisher Copyright:
    © 2021 Sigma Theta Tau International

    Keywords

    • child
    • child health
    • hospitalized
    • mobile application
    • patient safety

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • General Nursing

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