Parent views of infant pain and pain management in the neonatal intensive care unit

L S Franck, K Scurr, S Couture

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

It is well established that infant pain is an important concern of parents, but little is known about the knowledge and expectations of parents regarding their infant's pain or about parents' involvement in their infant's care and satisfaction with pain management by neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) staff: Parents have an important role to play in helping health care professionals understand their child's pain and in providing comfort to their child. Neonatal nursing has been at the forefront of family-centered care, but family involvement in pain care has lagged behind other aspects. New, guidelines and standards emphasize the importance of the family's role in pain management. This article examines the rationale for supporting parent involvement in infant pain care and discusses the importance of understanding parent views on infant pain in light of the new standards for pain management set forth by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations. Findings,from a survey to determine parent understanding of and involvement in infant pain care in one NICU are presented. A continuous-quality-improvement approach for enabling the involvement of parents in their- infant's pain care is proposed, and specific strategies are suggested. Copyright (C) 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)106
Number of pages1
JournalNewborn and Infant Nursing Reviews
Volume1
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2001

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