"Embracing Vulnerability"
 

Sick children are highly vulnerable to the pain and fear they experience during medical procedures. If their resistance threatens to cause the procedure to fail, it quickly leads to the use of physical restraint. Although the consequences of procedural distress are great, it remains widespread in the care of children.

In this lecture, we explore the vulnerability of sick children and examine the reasons why procedural distress remains so common. We find answers in how care is organized, in the complexity of a medical procedure in a child, and in how caregivers are trained to perform it. We further discover how achieving procedural comfort, as a solution to procedural distress, is an uncertain activity that requires a learning dialogue among all involved. Finally, we reflect on the role of vulnerability in good care and how acknowledging one's own vulnerability is essential to seeing it in another. 

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