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A young child's pain: how parents and nurses 'take care'
1Children's Hospital, Health Sciences Centre, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Insights
Parents vigilantly monitored hospitalized children's surgical pain, while nurses provided technical care with limited pain assessment. Enhanced nursing education and supportive policies are crucial for effectively managing pediatric post-operative pain.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nursing
- Pain Management
- Qualitative Research
Background:
- Hospitalized young children undergoing surgical interventions frequently experience post-operative pain.
- Caregiver responses, including those of parents and nurses, significantly influence a child's pain experience and management.
- Understanding these responses is vital for improving pediatric pain care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To qualitatively describe parental and nursing responses to pain in hospitalized young children after surgery.
- To identify care behaviors and contextual factors influencing pediatric post-operative pain management.
- To explore the perspectives of children, parents, and nurses regarding pain experiences.
Main Methods:
- A qualitative study employing participant observation to document care behaviors and context.
- Semi-structured interviews with parents, nurses, and children during hospitalization and before discharge.
- Data augmentation through triangulation of observational and interview findings.
Main Results:
- Parents actively provided comfort measures and closely monitored their children's pain.
- Nurses predominantly offered technical care, utilized limited pain assessment tools, and struggled to fully alleviate pain.
- Identified factors, strategies, and emotions associated with observed care behaviors.
Conclusions:
- Nurses require enhanced education in pediatric pain assessment and management strategies.
- Policies should empower nurses to respond sensitively and effectively to children in pain.
- Improved nursing education and supportive policies can optimize post-operative pain relief for pediatric patients.
Abstract:
A qualitative study was undertaken to describe how parents and nurses respond to hospitalized young children experiencing pain from surgical interventions. Participant observation was used to identify care behaviours and the care context within which the children experienced, and caregivers witnessed, post-operative pain. Interviews with parents, nurses, and children were also conducted during the observation periods and prior to discharge to augment the observational data. Care provided by parents included comfort measures and vigilant monitoring of the children's pain. Nurses primarily provided technical care, used limited pain assessment approaches, and were not able to adequately alleviate the children's pain. Factors, strategies, and feelings associated with these care behaviours are described. The most salient recommendations arising from these findings are that nurses: (a) be provided with education about pain assessment and management, and (b) be empowered by policies that allow them to sensitively and effectively respond to children in pain.