Berit Möller Christensen

Berits interest in care of children in the peri-radiographic process was the starting point for the research, which takes both a child perspective and the child’s perspective.

The thesis: “Children in the Radiology Department – a study of anxiety, pain, distress and verbal interaction”, contribute with new knowledge within a rather sparse researched area. The overall aim has been to investigate children’s experience of going through an acute radiographic examination after being physically injured – more specifically regarding anxiety, pain, distress and the verbal interaction between child and radigrapher.

Videoobservations, interviews, questionnaires, self-reports and the children’s drawings has formed base for analysis using quantitative, qualitative and mixed method design. The results showed that the children experienced anxiety, pain and distress in conjunction with examination – often reported above levels where further intervention is recommended. Furthermore the results showed that the radiographer adapt the verbal interaction during examination to the child’s age, which may imply for the child to feel confident in the radiographer.

Berit is a registered radiographer with clinical workexperience from the Radiology Department at the County Hospital, Ryhov in Jönköping. She works as a lecturer in radiography at the Department of Natural Sciences and Biomedicin, where she is the programme director of the radiographer programme, teaching undergraduate and advanced level students. Berit is active as a researcher within the research-group, CHILD where she is engaged in various interdisciplinary research-projects.