Pain management in neonatal intensive care units: A cross sectional study of neonatal nurses in Ilam City

Abstract

Introduction: Nurses are in close contact with patients and their knowledge of pain assessment and management plays a key role in enhancing patients health. The purpose of this study was to investigate theassesment and management of pain bynursing staff in neonatal intensive care units (NICU). Materials and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2018. The study population consisted of nurses with at least six months experience of working in the NICU of Ilam hospitals. The data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and a pain management questionnaire. Then, using spss16 software, descriptive statistics and independent t-test were performed with a significant level of less than 0.05. Results: The results showed that only a few nurses (7.1) answered “always” to setting up measures for reducing pain or discomfort of neonatal. In the “Parents were allowed to relieve pain” item, many nurses 18 (31.0) used this strategy only occasionally. Regarding non-pharmacological methods to reduce pain, only a small number of nurses 8 (13.8) used this item “always”. Conclusion: Regarding the fact that pain assessment and management were not at the appropriate level for nurses, it is necessary to have appropriate educational interventions in this field. © 2018 Neonatal Nurses Associatio