Health Care Professional’s Attitude Towards the Effective Management of Pain in the Critically Ill Neonate

Introduction: Over the past 25 years, caregiver’s knowledge of pain in newborn infants has advanced from the beliefs that newborn infants do not feel pain, to the knowledge that preterm infants experience more pain compare to older children and adults. However, caregivers know that pain exists in this population and research has supported that pain continues to be untreated up to 65% of the time.
Aim of the study: The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude and knowledge of health care professionals from the area of Neonatology in Romania regarding procedural pain management in newborn infants.
Material and methods: The sample consisted of 85 physicians and nurses (110 invited) working in five Neonatal Care Centres. Data were collected using a self-completion, 17 items questionnaire designed for this study.
Results: With a response rate of 77.27% which was similar in nurses and physicians, respondents in our study were aware about the pain experience during procedural interventions, recognized the items of pain scales assessment, and are not comfortable with the parental presence during painful procedures. Twenty-five percent of nurses versus 9% of physicians reported rushed care as an important barrier of adequate non-pharmacological pain management (95% IC, 0.319-0.003)
Conclusions: The use of pain protocols for an effective management of pain during neonatal period is required.