• Sevilay Erden, Tülay Artiklar, İlknur Tura, and Açelya Türkmen.
• Cukurova University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nursing, Adana, Turkey. Electronic address: sevilaygil@gmail.com.
• Pain Manag Nurs. 2022 Oct 1; 23 (5): 596-601.

AimThe purpose of the study was to assess the level of procedural pain in patients treated in the COVID-19 intensive care unit, in a tertiary university hospital.MethodWe performed the procedural pain assessment of COVID-19 patients in this study, and 162 (93.6 %) of 173 hospitalized patients assessed during this period. While pain was assessed before, during, and at the 20th minute after endotracheal aspiration, wound care, and position change, which are procedural patient practices, the pain was assessed before, during, and up to the fourth hour after prone positioning, high-flow oxygen therapy (HFOT), and the non-invasive mechanical ventilation (NIMV) procedure. The Numerical Pain Scale was used for conscious patients in pain assessment, while the Behavioral Pain Scale and the Richmond Agitation-Sedation Scale were used for unconscious patients.ResultsPatients who underwent endotracheal aspiration, wound care, and positioning had higher pain levels during procedure than other time points. Patients in the prone position with HFOT and NIMV applied had the highest pain scores at fourth hour after procedure; this increase was statistically significant (p = .000, p < .05).ConclusionsThe study found that COVID-19 patients in the ICU had pain due to procedural practices and that the level of pain during the procedures was higher because endotracheal aspiration, wound care, and positioning were all short-term procedures. Moreover, prone positioning was found to be associated with pressure-related tissue damage, and patients' pain levels increased with the increasing duration of HFOT and NIMV procedure.Copyright © 2022 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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