Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 2, 2026
An Experimental Paradigm for the Prediction of Post-Operative Pain PPOP
Published on: January 27, 2010
Post-Operative Pain and Comfort in Children After Heart Surgery: A Comparison of Nurses and Families Pre-operative
Kayla A Harvey1, Andrea Kovalesky2
1Mary Bridge Children's Hospital, Pediatric Heart Surgery Program, Tacoma, WA, USA.
Purpose:
Parents' and nurses' expectations about pain control and comfort in children after heart surgery were explored to contribute to evidence-based family-centered interventions.
Design And Methods:
20 nurses and 23 parents from a tertiary pediatric center in the Pacific Northwest, were interviewed about their expectations of children's pain control and comfort experience in the hospital after heart surgery. In this descriptive study, data were collected from semi-structured recall interviews and analyzed using content analysis.
Results:
Most parents expected their child be medicated at a level of not feeling any pain. Many expected their child to remain in a heavily sedated state after the surgery. A few parents did not know what to expect. In contrast, nurses expected children to have controlled pain with intermittent discomfort, yet, tolerating recovery activities.
Conclusions:
Although both parents and nurses expect to partner in the comfort care of the child, there is variation on the expectations around the nurse-parent relationship and the operational definition of pain management and comfort.
Practice Implications:
Awareness of parents' expectations about pediatric post-operative comfort present an opportunity for the development of interventions aimed to enhance alignment of nurse and family strategies for children after heart surgery. Pre-operative preparation for families specific to post-operative recovery and pain management of children hospitalized for heart surgery is needed.
Related Concept Videos
01:28Cardiomyopathy VII: Pre and Post Operative Nursing Management
01:17Operational Amplifiers
01:27Real Number Operations
01:20Vector Operations
A vector multiplied by a scalar value is called scalar multiplication. The result obtained is a new vector with a different magnitude. If the scalar is positive, the direction of the vector remains the same, but if it is negative, the direction of the vector is reversed. For example, the product of the mass and velocity yields the momentum.
01:21Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement in operant conditioning can be positive or negative, both of which serve to increase the likelihood of a behavior. Positive...
01:22Second Derivatives and Laplace Operator
Consider a scalar function. The curl of its...