Journal of pediatric nursing
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In response to unit nursing quality and patient satisfaction concerns, the shared governance councils identified opportunities to improve overall assessment and management of pain in hospitalized pediatric patients. Together, the unit-shared governance councils evaluated current practice and reviewed the literature to develop comprehensive Pediatric Pain Assessment and Management Guidelines. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing an evidence-based pain assessment and management guideline on nurses' knowledge, ability to assess and manage the patients' pain, and patient/family satisfaction with staff's management of pain. ⋯ No differences were found between nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding pain before and after implementation of the guideline. Significant increases in pain assessment, use of correct tool, and reassessment were found following implementation. Although improving, there was no difference in patient/family satisfaction after guideline implementation.
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This study aimed to describe nurses' expectations of using music for premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and to find out about the related background factors. The subjects consisted of 210 Finnish nurses who were recruited from the country's five university hospitals providing premature infant care in NICU. The data were collected by validated questionnaire, and the response rate was 82%. ⋯ They expected that music would have positive effects on premature infants, parents, and staff. Few demographic and many background factors of the respondents' music-related experiences correlated significantly with the expectations concerning their preference. In conclusion, the nurses' expectations were positive regarding the use of music in the NICU, which supports evidence regarding the efficacy of music therapy for premature infants.
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Finding the evidence to change practice for assessing pain in children who are cognitively impaired.
We report on a quality improvement project whose purpose was to systematically review behavioral pain assessment tools for children who are cognitively impaired, with the goal of identifying a valid and reliable tool for clinical practice. In addition, we sought to partner with parents and/or caregivers to expand their role in pain assessment. ⋯ Once completed, we identified 2 of the available 10 tools to test in the clinical setting. Data from this quality improvement project provided evidence to support the adoption of the revised Faces, Legs, Activity, Cry, and Consolability pain assessment tool for children with CI into clinical practice.