Aust Crit Care
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Despite the use of guidelines to inform practice for pain and sedation management there are few evaluations of the effect of their introduction on clinical practice. Previous evaluations of the protocols and guidelines used to manage pain and sedation in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) report increases in pain and sedation medication administration post guideline introduction. In most reported cases the guideline was accompanied by a treatment algorithm. To our knowledge there is no published data on the effect of introducing a guideline without a treatment algorithm on pain and analgesia administration. ⋯ The introduction of a clinical practice guideline for pain and sedation management in PICU contributes to changes in medication administration, use of validated pain assessments, improved documentation of boluses and communication of management plans.