In an emergency department, nurses and doctors can get too busy to wait for numbing creams for needle procedures. For shots, for bee stings, for injected medicines, for all acute pain management, Dr. Amy Baxter and her team developed Buzzy.

How to use Buzzy for Injections

Ideally, a parent would put an arm around their child and hold Buzzy on the site for about 30 seconds before the injection. Even with Buzzy there will be dull touch sensations so its good to use distraction questions or Bee-Stractor Emergency Entertainment cards to entertain and pull attention away if the child already has a needle phobia. After 30 seconds move Buzzy up from the injection spot and keep pressing Buzzy onto the skin and perform the injection.

What are Bee-Stractors?

Bee-Stractors are 5 cards on a ring with related counting and finding questions on the back. How many stars do you see? Which two cows are the same? Beestractors are a quick and handy way for nurses, teachers, doctors or parents to take the mind off a painful procedure. Distraction can decrease pain by 50%, but having the tools close at hand right when you need them can be tough.

Bee-stractors are quick boredom busters, pain relievers, or tantrum tamers that de-rail downward spirals of distress. The cards can be placed in a slot in Buzzy to block the view of the needle or they can be held by the child, which ever works best for the child.

2 Buzzy units and Beestractors have just been purchased by the Hutt Hospital Foundation Trust for the Hutt Hospital Emergency Department.