Mothers' experiences of managing their child's pain before and during attendance at the emergency department

Pain relief practices of parents before presenting to pediatric emergency services

INTRODUCTION

Pain, which is a condition that is experienced very frequently by children and leads to negative consequences, is one of the most prevalent reasons for presentation to emergency services.

OBJECTIVE

This study was conducted to determine the pain relief practices implemented by parents for their children before presenting to pediatric emergency services.

METHOD

This descriptive study included the parents of 425 children who were brought to the pediatric emergency service of a state hospital in Turkey. The data were collected using a form that was developed by the researchers, and the collected data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and chi-squared tests.

RESULTS

The mean age of the children brought to the emergency service was 8.16±4.03, while 50.8% were female. It was determined that 60.7% of the children presented to the emergency service with abdominal pain, 69.9% were subjected to a pain relief intervention before presenting to the emergency service, 81% were given drugs as an intervention, and alternative methods were used by the parents of 64.4%. Statistically significant relationships were found between the working statuses of mothers and fathers and their implementation of any intervention to pain and between the type of pain and the status of the parents giving drugs to their children (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

The rates of parents who gave drugs to their children to relieve pain or applied non-pharmaceutical alternative methods were high. For the effective control and management of pain at pediatric emergency services, it may be recommended to inform parents about this issue and include them in the process.

Nurses' management of children's acute postoperative pain: A theory of bureaucratic caring deductive study

BACKGROUND

Few studies have examined the translation of nurses' knowledge of pain management into clinical practice or how nurses negotiated the bureaucracy of caring to treat patients' acute pain.

PURPOSE

This study describes factors that influence pediatric nurses' actions in caring for hospitalized children's acute post-surgical pain.

METHOD

Ray's Theory of Bureaucratic Caring provided the theoretical framework for this mixed methods study of ethnography and human factors engineering. Fourteen nurses were observed throughout their shifts (175.5 h) to elucidate humanistic and bureaucratic influences.

FINDINGS

Of 105 pain assessments, nurses intervened with pharmacologic (n = 45) and biobehavioral (n = 13) interventions for pediatric patients' post-surgical pain in less than 11 min; and 25 assessments revealed patients did not have pain. Pain was assessed and no intervention was provided to 4 patients who were asleep, 5 patients who refused, 2 patients who had no ordered analgesics and 10 patients who were assessed prior to peak effectiveness of their prior analgesic. Overall pain was well-controlled. Of the 28 themes identified, the interplay of 6 categorized to the social/cultural humanistic, 7 political, and 6 technologic/physiological bureaucratic dimensions most strongly influenced pain care.

DISCUSSION

To achieve optimal pain care outcomes, nurses' and parents' pain management knowledge was less influential for clinical practice translation than nurses' negotiation of other dimensions of bureaucratic caring.

Tokenism or true partnership: Parental involvement in a child's acute pain care

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

To explore parental involvement in the child's acute pain care and establish ways in which parental preferences for involvement in their child's care can be identified, facilitated and enhanced by nurses.

BACKGROUND

Despite growing evidence supporting effective acute pain management in children and the availability of national and international practice guidelines, children still experience acute pain. Involving parents in their child's pain care has been identified as being a central tenet of pain management in children.

DESIGN AND METHODS

A qualitative study using an ethnographical approach with nonparticipant observation and follow-up semi-structured interviews was undertaken. Nurses (n = 14), parents (n = 41), grandparents (n = 2), other relative (n = 1) and children (n = 30) participated. The framework approach underpinned data analysis. Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ) enabled comprehensive reporting of the study.

RESULTS

Three concepts emerged from the data: "parents as advocates for their child," "nurses promoting involvement and partnership" and "nurses unintentionally preventing involvement and partnership." Variations in the way parents were involved in their child's pain care were identified. Despite family-centred care being the dominant model of involving families in their child's care, evidence of this being implemented was limited. Parents attempted to advocate effective pain care for their child, whether or not they were supported by nurses.

CONCLUSIONS

Parental involvement in their child's acute pain care can improve the child's pain experience, reduce parental anxiety and increase parents' satisfaction in care. Nurses aspired to involve parents in pain care, but did not always enact this in practice.

RELEVANCE FOR PRACTICE

Children deserve optimum pain care, which includes parental involvement. Parental involvement underpinned by the principles of family-centred care was poorly implemented. Parents attempted to be involved and advocate for their child's pain care whether or not they were supported by nurses. An alternative approach for supporting parents to advocate in their child's acute pain care is offered, the "Partnership in Pain Care Model."

Paediatric Pain Medicine: Pain Differences, Recognition and Coping Acute Procedural Pain in Paediatric Emergency Room

Paediatric pain and its assessment and management are challenging for medical professionals, especially in an urgent care environment. Patients in a paediatric emergency room (PER) often undergo painful procedures which are an additional source of distress, anxiety, and pain. Paediatric procedural pain is often underestimated and neglected because of various myths, beliefs, and difficulties in its evaluation and treatment. However, it is very different from other origins of pain as it can be preventable. It is known that neonates and children can feel pain and that it has long-term effects that last through childhood into adulthood. There are a variety of pain assessment tools for children and they should be chosen according to the patient’s age, developmental stage, communication skills, and medical condition. Psychological factors such as PER environment, preprocedural preparation, and parental involvement should also be considered. There are proven methods to reduce a patient’s pain and anxiety during different procedures in PER. Distraction techniques such as music, videogames, virtual reality, or simple talk about movies, friends, or hobbies as well as cutaneous stimulation, vibration, cooling sprays, or devices are effective to alleviate procedural pain and anxiety. A choice of distraction technique should be individualized, selecting children who could benefit from nonpharmacological pain treatment methods or tools. Nonpharmacological pain management may reduce dosage of pain medication or exclude pharmacological pain management. Most nonpharmacological treatment methods are cheap, easily accessible, and safe to use on every child, so it should always be a first choice when planning a patient’s care. The aim of this review is to provide a summary of paediatric pain features, along with their physiology, assessment, management, and to highlight the importance and efficacy of nonpharmacological pain management in an urgent paediatric care setting.