Pain management in children by pediatric nurses in Bitlis city, Turkey

6^th World Nursing and Healthcare Conference

August 15-17, 2016 London, UK

Mehtap Omac Sonmez, Feyza Nazik and Lokman Erol

Kahramanmaras Sutcuimam University, Turkey
Bingol University, Turkey
Sisli Etfal Hospital, Turkey

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Nurs Care

Abstract :

Pain is an unpleasant experience that of emotional and physical aspect. When assessment is done in children, the main problem is that children cannot explain the pain. Uncured pain may cause biological, emotional, social problems and even developmental, behavioral problems. Effective pain management requires nurses to have accurate knowledge and skill. This study explained the assessment of pain in children by pediatric nurses. The study was a cross-sectional descriptive one. It was planned to reach pediatric nurses between 22nd April- 2013 and 1st june 2013. There was a total of 90 pediatric nurses working at state hospital, private hospital in Bitlis city (east of Turkey). All the nurses were included in this study. It was requested to fill out a questionnaire containing questions about their knowledge and skill about pain management in children. Data were analyzed by SPSS 22.0 and evaluated by descriptive statistics, and chi-square was used to determine the statistical differences between categorical variables and p<0.05 was considered statistically significant. The mean ages of the nurses were 26.61�±6.45. 51.1% of nurses were married and having minimum of one child. 46.7% of nurses were working in day shift and 34.4% of nurses were working in day and night shift. 60% of nurses reported that they want to work in pediatric clinics. Nurses reported how they assess pain in children like: questioning the child (76.5%), by evaluating the behavior and physiological changes (81%), questioning parents (56.6%), by evaluating the results (19.9%) and by medical examination (19.9%). Nurses also reported about the first interventions for the management of pain in children which include: consultant doctor (50%), gave analgesic (41.1%) and other interventions excluding analgesics (27.6%). Commonly used interventions include: giving analgesics (19.3%), to help sleeping (22.3%), to play a game (12.2%) giving a massage (36.9%) and giving a toy/balloon (5.5%). Optimal pain management is the right of all patients and the responsibility of all health professionals. Especially nurses should offer other interventions excluding analgesics and should have knowledge about different interventions and evidence based assessments for childrensâ�� pain.

Biography :

Mehtap Omaç Sönmez has completed her PhD from Inonu University and Post-doctoral studies from Kahramanmaras Sutcuimam University School of Health. She is the Director of Nursing Departmant. She has published a lot of papers in reputed national and international journals.

Email: mehtapomac@gmail.com