Banner Thunderbird offers ouch-free shots
GLENDALE, Ariz. (June 4, 2009) – When Deby Campbell, RN, at Banner Thunderbird Medical Center tells a child their shot won’t hurt a bit, she means it.
Nonprofit Banner Thunderbird Medical Center is taking the needles and pain out of injections when they started using the J-Tip injection delivery devices this week in the hospital’s Pediatric Emergency department. The J-Tip, a pressurized system that administers a lidocaine numbing solution through the skin, prepares the area for shots by numbing it – making shots virtually pain free.
The new device can be used to numb injection sites for a number of procedures including IV insertions, blood draws and even stitches, easing fear of injections and significantly reducing pain. The lidocaine from the J-Tip takes effect in one to three minutes.
“Pediatric patients are always anxious when they come to the hospital,” said Campbell, a pediatric nurse coordinator at Banner Thunderbird. “Anything we can do to reduce their anxiety today leads to a better hospital stay now and also promotes better responses in the future.”
The J-Tip looks like a regular plastic syringe, but when used, sounds like a soda can being opened. Campbell says they have fun preparing pediatric patients for the sound, telling boys it sounds like a rocket ship or a light saber from Star Wars. For girls, it’s compared to the start of Disney star Hannah Montana’s concert with fireworks shooting through the air.
Before the J-Tip, pediatric emergency patients were not given anything to numb areas for shots or blood draws whereas children in the pediatrics unit were prepped for injections or small procedures with topical creams and solutions that would take longer to work.
“This is very exciting,” Campbell said. “Now we have something to ease and prevent the pain of all of our pediatric patients.”
About Banner Thunderbird Medical Center
Banner Thunderbird Medical Center, part of Banner Health—a nonprofit health system with 22 hospitals throughout the West—is a 409-bed acute-care hospital featuring a behavioral health center, children’s center and dedicated outpatient center.
