Journal of advanced nursing
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Multicenter Study
Achieving consensus about pain content for child branch curricula.
The aim of the study was to identify nurse educators' and nurse managers' perceptions of the educational needs of children's nurses in relation to pain management. ⋯ The results of this study suggest that nurse educators and nurse managers have similar views about the pain management knowledge they would expect a newly qualified child branch nurse to have. The list of appropriate pain content derived from the results of this study provides a useful tool with which to evaluate the content of child branch curricula.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Relaxation and music to reduce postsurgical pain.
We investigated the effects of relaxation, music, and the combination of relaxation and music on postoperative pain, across and between two days and two activities (ambulation and rest) and across ambulation each day. This secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial was conducted from 1995 to 1997. ⋯ Nurses can safely recommend any of these interventions for pain on both postoperative days and at both ambulation and rest.
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This study measured the attitudes of Finnish paediatric nurses to children in pain and the connection between nurses' attitudes, nurses' attributes and nurses' own view of their knowledge and ability to take care of children in pain. The measurements were based on a purpose-designed instrument consisting of a 41-item Likert-type questionnaire and demographic data. The convenience sample consisted of paediatric nurses at all five university hospitals in Finland (n = 303). ⋯ The findings of this study indicate that although nurses' attitudes to pain management are mainly positive, there is much variation in how they feel they can actually provide quality care to control pain. More attention should be paid to training nurses and to providing knowledge about the treatment of pain in children. Future research should look at nurses' existing knowledge base as well as their activities in the assessment and management of pain.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Daily pain assessment: value for nurses and patients.
Current guidelines for pain management recommend systematic assessment of pain. A few standardized tools exist for the daily assessment of pain intensity, for example the numeric rating scale or visual analogue scale, yet these instruments are rarely used by nurses. In the study reported in this paper, a numeric rating scale accompanied by an educational programme for nurses, was implemented in three hospitals. ⋯ The results show that nurses' compliance with daily pain assessment is high (73.9%) and that daily pain assessment is feasible and valued by nurses; however, differences between the three hospitals and two specialties (medical vs. surgical wards) were found. Although patients have difficulty with expressing their pain by use of a number, almost all patients are able to give a pain score and a majority is positive about daily pain assessment. From this study it can be concluded that daily pain assessment is practical and appreciated by nurses as well as patients, but attuning the implementation protocol to the needs of the specific setting is necessary.