'Ouchless' Pediatric Emergency Care
Going to the Emergency Room is overwhelming enough for kids. To help take the anxiety away, we have developed an "Ouchless ER" to alleviate the pain of an unplanned trip to the hospital.
Salem Hospital pediatric emergency physicians and nurses are trained in distraction and sensitivity techniques and use a variety of tools to make shots, stitches, inserting IVs and drawing blood less traumatic for young patients.
- If your child is going to need an injection or IV, we apply numbing medicine on the injection site first. While the numbing medicine takes effect, our staff works to distract your child using bubbles, coloring books, games or their favorite movie/show from our large collection.
- We understand that we won’t always have time to spare, and for such circumstances we use a needle-free device that will numb the IV or injection site in just 30 seconds.
- Our nurses use Buzzy®, a hand-held device that looks like a toy bee. Buzzy® uses a combination of vibration, ice and distraction to minimize the pinch from needles.
- If your child is feeling anxious we offer nitrous oxide (laughing gas) to aid with their anxiety and alleviate pain. There are no lasting effects with nitrous oxide so your child can return to their usual activities minutes after the procedure.