"Pain Free" ER

From Tampabays10.com:

Lorri Hunt, Nurse Manager, St. Joseph's Children's Hospital:
"We are the only hospital in the country that's incorporated a whole entire philosophy that every child will be offered some type of 'pain-free' initiative."

Hunt says the 'pain free' kit includes a cool laser that allows a numbing product to be effective in seven minutes--instead of the typical hour, which means a shorter delay to insert an IV. And the device isn't intimidating; they call it the 'fish kiss or ouch eraser.

There's also team members who are a part of 'Child Life' who stay by the child's bedside reading or playing games. That way children are distracted when the doctor or nurse performs whatever procedure is needed. For the smaller patients, pacifiers are dipped in a sucrose solution, and when babies suck on it, they stop crying immediately. Hunt says all of these things will help ease the fears of children--and parents who are just as worried.