Journal of pediatric nursing
-
The purpose of this study was to describe the findings of a literature review focusing on the viewpoint of family members in children's postoperative pain assessment and management. The study was based on empirical studies of families and children's postoperative pain published in 1991-2000. Eleven articles found in two databases (PubMed + Cinahl) were nonrandomly selected for an analysis. ⋯ Further research is needed to deepen our understanding on children's postoperative pain as a family experience. Family nursing theories could be used more in studies focusing on children's postoperative pain. More attention should be paid on parents' needs and on their counseling about children's pain in clinical pediatric nursing.
-
Venipuncture is one of the most painful medical procedures for a child, and it is one of the most frequently performed. This literature synthesis reviews evidence for the use of eutectic mixture of local anesthetics (EMLA) cream to reduce the pain children experience during venipuncture. EMLA cream was compared with placebo, iontophoresis, and amethocaine cream and was found to be an effective local anesthetic for pediatric venipuncture pain during both intravenous cannulation and phlebotomy.
-
A primary purpose of this study was to examine relationships among nurses' knowledge and attitudes about children' pain relief, nurses' abilities to overcome barriers to optimal pain management, nurses' analgesic practices, and pain levels of hospitalized children. Significant positive relationships were found between nurses' (N = 67) analgesic administration and children's pain, and between nurses' years of practice with children and nurses' abilities to overcome barriers to optimal pain management. ⋯ Of the 117 children who reported pain, 74% received analgesia. Nurses administered a mean of 37.9% of available morphine and means of 36% to 54% of recommended amounts of morphine, acetaminophen, and codeine.
-
Review Case Reports
Pain assessment in nonverbal children with severe cognitive impairments: the Individualized Numeric Rating Scale (INRS).
Children's Hospital Boston began a major pain assessment and management initiative 3 years ago: Pain assessment and management are considered one of the institution's primary standards of care. The initiative included State of the Science meetings with internationally renowned nursing pain researchers and clinicians. ⋯ After developing a clinical question, the authors did a literature review and a benchmarking analysis of best practice. The pilot of an adapted, existing pain assessment tool is described in this article.
-
Comparative Study
Stressors and stress symptoms of mothers with children in the PICU.
The purpose of this study was a description of sources of stress and stress symptoms over time for mothers with a child in the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and a comparison with mothers with a child in a general care unit (GCU). The sample contained 31 PICU mothers and 32 GCU mothers who were studied during four time periods over 6 months using the Parental Stressor Scale: PICU and the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised. ⋯ This is valuable information because nurses should know how mothers of critically ill children feel and what stresses them in order to help the mothers and teach them about what changes to expect in themselves. Nursing practice must enable parents to continue in their family roles to be effective and therapeutic to their children.