Effects of Music Therapy on Pain of IV Insertion

Abstract:

Background: Patients often rely on nurses to use measures that will ease the pain of their intravenous catheterization. As a comfort measure, many hospitals provide the option of lidocaine use to ease this pain, and is often preferred by patients. (Burke, Bercler, Bye, Desmond & Reese, 2011). However, lidocaine administration is invasive and stimulates a burning sensation in the subcutaneous tissue while it is being numbed. This often defeats the purpose it was originally administered for, the relief of pain, and sometimes may even cause more pain than the IV needle would have. Is it possible that a non-pharmaceutical, non-invasive and more cost effective measure, that provides similar results, be utilized?

Objective: The purpose of this research study is to measure the effect of music therapy in comparison to lidocaine administration on intravenous catheterization pain.

Methods: A quasi-experimental, non-probability, convenience sampling  method will be employed to compared levels of pain during intravenous catheterization using music and lidocaine therapy. Patient’s level of pain will be measured before, during and immediately following the procedure using the Visual Analog Scale (VAS). Soft classical music will play 20 minutes prior to the procedure and throughout the procedure. Only successful first attempts will be utilized in this study. A sample size of 60, 30 music therapy and 30 lidocaine therapy, will be used.

Results: Pending date collection and analysis.

Conclusion: Though Lidocaine has been shown to provide relief of IV procedure pain, it is an invasive therapy. If this research study supported music therapy to be a significant alternative to Lidocaine, persons  involved in infusion therapy may be able to provide patients an alternative pain relief measure. By reducing the number of needle sticks from two to one, patients are receiving a less invasive and more comfortable therapeutic intervention.