Differences Between Parents and Nurses in Perceived Educational Support for Pediatric Postoperative Pain Management

This cross-sectional study aims to investigate the differences between parents and nurses in perceived educational support for pediatric postoperative pain management. It is hypothesized that there is significant difference between the participants that leads to insufficient control of pain.

Parents of children undergoing major surgery and surgical nurses were invited to respond to the electronic questionnaires. The prioritization of specific information, children's postoperative pain experience, the preferred method for receiving or providing educational support and participants' satisfaction with the educational support was investigated.

We included 214 participants, including 50 surgical nurses and 164 parents. How to evaluate pain severity in child was rated as the most import information in parents, while it was how to command PCAP in nurses. Significant differences were detected in the importance scores of the following: (1) indication of PCAP [4.5 (2-5) vs. 5 (2-5), p = 0.0241], (2) how to evaluate pain severity in the child [4.5 (1-5) vs. 5 (3-5), p = 0.0482], and (3) target of postoperative pain management [4.5 (2-5) vs. 5 (3-5), p = 0.0130]. There was significantly difference in the preferred method to receive/provide educational support between nurses and parents (p = 0.0100). Parents were significantly less satisfied with the educational support [5 (2-5) vs. 4 (1-5), p = 0.0316]. The pain score at both movement and rest at 24, 48 and 72 h was significantly decreased over time, 6 (5-7), 5 (4-6), 4 (3-4) with p < 0.0001, < 0.0001 and 0.0004 and 3 (3-4), 3 (2-3), 2 (2-3) with p = 0.0010, < 0.0001 and 0.1002, respectively. The median (IQR) press number at 24, 48 and 72 h were 0 (0-1), 1 (0-2) and 1 (1-3), with no significant differences.

Despite the use of PCAP, children experienced moderate postoperative pain owing to low parental engagement. Differences between parents and surgical nurses in the prioritization of specific information may result in insufficient educational support. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the effectiveness of educational programs that address parents' concerns to improve the postoperative pain management in pediatric population.