The Psychosocial Risk Assessment in Pediatrics (PRAP) is a validated screening tool, developed by a team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, designed to assess pediatric patients’ risk for experiencing elevated distress during health care encounters. It includes a database that stores, organizes, and analyzes psychosocial data, and also features benchmarking capability, enabling comparison of PRAP data with other facilities.
The purchase of a license gives an individual program access to both print and electronic PRAP materials, as well as a site-specific data repository for historic PRAP scores that can be used to track patient vulnerability trends.
If you are interested in learning more about this exciting new tool, the following videos offer a preview of the PRAP in action. For additional details, view a recording of the introductory webinar
Quantifying Our Work: Understanding the Psychosocial Risk Assessment in Pediatrics (PRAP) and its Role in Child Life Practice (approximately 60 minutes). Over the course of the presentation, learn how the PRAP can be purchased and used within your own site.
The variables assessed in the PRAP were selected from risk factors identified in empirical research and from risk factors suggested by a committee of subject matter experts (including child life specialists, psychologists, and physicians) at Cincinnati Children’s. Established interview questions help predict which patients are more likely to experience psychological distress from a health care encounter and provide insight that can target specific patient issues and guide selection of the most appropriate interventions. The PRAP can assist clinicians with identifying patients more at risk for long-term negative effects from health care. The PRAP can also serve as an efficient and cost-effective approach to determine how psychosocial resources and staffing might be allocated to meet the greatest need. In an era of limited resources and increasing patient needs, rigorous assessment is imperative.
The reliability and validity of the PRAP was established in an IRB-approved research study of 200 participants, and the tool has been further tested by child life programs at other facilities.
“The PRAP is a very useful tool that pulls together the most important pieces of information in assessing how a patient might experience a health care encounter. It is clear, concise, and easy to use. I use this tool to ensure that the patients who have specific needs have those needs met during their time at the hospital.”
“The PRAP is a great addition to our professional ‘toolbox’! It has enhanced our abilities to share our formal and informal assessments with the interdisciplinary team.”
“PRAP is super quick and validates my assessments and interventions in a fast-paced multi-patient environment. PRAP allows me to prioritize patient interactions. PRAP reports help me to track the patients I’ve seen and see the trends in my interventions.”
“As both a pediatric care provider and a parent of a child with autism, I find the PRAP to be an invaluable assessment tool that finally identified my child’s high risk for distress. Interventions were then tailored to her specific fears which minimized her distress and mine.”