[Children experiencing pain and coping with it in situations of invasive diagnostics, therapies and care]

The opening of pediatric units for co-admission of parents brought a clear change in the professional understanding of pediatric nursing. In all areas of work this creates new challenges for pediatric nurses. Besides professional competences of caring for ill children they now require competences in guiding and counselling parents, offering them effective strategies for coping with stressful experiences in connection with the illness of their child. Quite often painful diagnostic or therapeutic interventions accompanying illness are extremely stress-laden, especially for young children. The pediatric nurse must transform these situations in a way that facilitates prevention and coping mechanisms for parents as well as for the affected children to support them in their coping strategies. This article legitimises the task of the pediatric nurse to counsel and guide parents of children in invasive painful situations in the light of Orem's Self-Care-Framework and from the perspective of developmental psychology. Cognitive as well as emotional coping mechanisms of children are presented, from which ways to counsel parents and to care for children in painful situations may be deduced. In a care situation trusting relationships between nurse, child and parents are essential. How children build trust should be a topic of research and discussion as well as the specific characteristics of a professional relationship between nurse and patient.