Journal of pediatric psychology
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Investigated postoperative PRN analgesic medication decisions regarding children in 113 hospital nurses, using analog stimuli. Nurses with greater narcotics knowledge and comfort indicated they would provide significantly more medication. Nurses provided more analgesics to children showing higher pain, and on the first than on the third postoperative day. ⋯ These findings were consistent across high and low pain conditions. Nurses' ratings of children's pain were also affected by seriousness and time since surgery. Findings are discussed with reference to problems of undermanagement of children's pain.
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Comparative Study
Development and evaluation of a presurgical preparation program.
Three presurgical preparation programs were developed and evaluated in an Australian hospital utilizing an additive component design. The component basic to all three preparation programs was modeling. This technique was compared with the additional components of teaching child coping skills and parent coping skills via videotape. ⋯ Results indicated that there was no further anxiety reduction by the addition of child and parent coping skills. Results are discussed in terms of the viability of teaching coping skills via videotape particularly to parents. Methodological difficulties associated with research in this area are examined.