Related Experiment Video

Updated: Feb 10, 2026

Monitoring Lung Function with Electrical Impedance Tomography in the Intensive Care Unit
05:56

Monitoring Lung Function with Electrical Impedance Tomography in the Intensive Care Unit

Published on: September 6, 2024

6.3K

How often do we perform painful and stressful procedures in the paediatric intensive care unit? A prospective

Manuel A Baarslag1, Sharan Jhingoer1, Erwin Ista1

  • 1Intensive Care and Department of Pediatric Surgery, Erasmus University Medical Center - Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Australian Critical Care : Official Journal of the Confederation of Australian Critical Care Nurses
|May 22, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Children in pediatric intensive care units (PICU) experience numerous painful procedures daily, often without adequate pain management. Endotracheal suctioning is most common, while skin-breaking procedures are perceived as most painful but rarely receive sufficient analgesia or sedation.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Intensive Care
  • Pain Management
  • Sedation

Background:

  • Adequate analgesia and sedation are critical in critical care settings.
  • Limited knowledge exists regarding the frequency of painful procedures and management in pediatric intensive care units (PICUs).

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the daily number of painful and stressful procedures per patient in a PICU.
  • To assess the analgesic and/or sedative management for these procedures.
  • To evaluate nurses' perceptions of procedure pain.

Main Methods:

  • Prospective, single-center observational cohort study.
  • Inclusion of all eligible PICU patients over a 3-month period.
  • Daily collection of procedure data and analgesic/sedative use; nurses rated procedure pain (0-10 scale).

Main Results:

  • 229 patients (855 patient days) included; median 11 procedures/patient/day.
  • Endotracheal suctioning (45%) was most frequent; arterial/lumbar puncture, IV cannula insertion, venipuncture scored highest pain (3-10).
  • Procedural analgesia/sedation often omitted for most painful procedures.

Conclusions:

  • Mechanically ventilated patients endure over twice the procedures of non-ventilated patients.
  • Nurses identified skin-breaking procedures as most painful, yet these received inadequate procedural and background analgosedation.
  • There is a significant gap in providing adequate pain and sedation management for critically ill children.
Abstract

Keywords:
AnalgesiaChildrenPaediatric intensive carePainStress

More Related Videos

Observational Study Protocol for Repeated Clinical Examination and Critical Care Ultrasonography Within the Simple Intensive Care Studies10:38

Observational Study Protocol for Repeated Clinical Examination and Critical Care Ultrasonography Within the Simple Intensive Care Studies

Published on: January 16, 2019

20.9K
Author Spotlight: Quantifying Pain Experience – An Illustrative Approach Using the Pain Body Diagram09:00

Author Spotlight: Quantifying Pain Experience – An Illustrative Approach Using the Pain Body Diagram

Published on: July 7, 2023

4.5K

Related Concept Videos

Tracheostomy Care II: Procedure01:25

Tracheostomy Care II: Procedure

Tracheostomy care is an essential nursing skill that involves cleaning and maintaining a tracheostomy tube to prevent infection and other complications. Here's a step-by-step guide explaining each procedure with its rationale. Note that disposable gloves are to be worn at all times and changed as often as needed to maintain a sterile work environment, and to protect both patient and healthcare worker.
Step 1: Perform hand hygiene, and put on personal protective equipment: gown, gloves, mask...
1.6K
Observational Studies01:11

Observational Studies

Observational studies are a type of analytical study where researchers observe events without any interventions. In other words, the researcher does not influence the response variable or the experiment's outcome.
There are three types of observational studies – Prospective, retrospective, and cross-sectional.
Prospective Study
Prospective studies, also known as longitudinal or cohort studies, are carried out by collecting future data from groups sharing similar characteristics. One...
11.1K
Tracheostomy Care I: Pre-procedural Steps01:16

Tracheostomy Care I: Pre-procedural Steps

A tracheostomy is a surgical technique that involves making an incision in the neck to provide access to the trachea. It is frequently used in medical conditions such as airway obstruction and prolonged mechanical ventilation. Effective nursing management is crucial for the long-term success of a tracheostomy.
Required Equipment
The equipment necessary for tracheostomy care includes:
1.3K
Measurement: Derived Units03:02

Measurement: Derived Units

The International System of Units or SI system, by international agreement, has fixed measurement units for seven fundamental properties: length, mass, time, temperature, electric current, amount of substance, and luminosity. These are called the SI base units.
56.0K
Measurement: Standard Units03:38

Measurement: Standard Units

Every measurement provides three kinds of information: the size or magnitude of the measurement (a number), a standard of comparison for the measurement (a unit), and an indication of the uncertainty of the measurement. While the number and unit are explicitly represented when a quantity is written, the uncertainty is an aspect of the errors in the measurement results.
81.7K
Naturalistic Observations02:30

Naturalistic Observations

If you want to understand how behavior occurs, one of the best ways to gain information is to simply observe the behavior in its natural context. However, people might change their behavior in unexpected ways if they know they are being observed. How do researchers obtain accurate information when people tend to hide their natural behavior? As an example, imagine that your professor asks everyone in your class to raise their hand if they always wash their hands after using the restroom. Chances...
17.5K