Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on Improving Family-Centred Pain Care in a Tertiary Pediatric Centre

Background Despite being a core component of family-centered and compassionate care, children's pain is often undertreated in Canadian hospitals. Nurses’ and other healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) ability to understand and respond to a child and their family's pain care needs is integral t...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of nursing research Vol. 56; no. 2; pp. 171 - 177
Main Authors: Kammerer, Elise, Fawcett-Arsenault, Joelle, Iliscupidez, Lexyn, Ali, Samina
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-06-2024
Sage Publications Ltd
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Background Despite being a core component of family-centered and compassionate care, children's pain is often undertreated in Canadian hospitals. Nurses’ and other healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) ability to understand and respond to a child and their family's pain care needs is integral to improving this care in a family-centered manner. Purpose To understand nurses’ and other HCPs’ perceptions of child and family needs to make care more collaborative and patient- and family-centered. Methods Eighteen participants were recruited and represented the specialties of nursing (n = 8), psychology (n = 1), child life services (n = 2), medicine/surgery (n = 3), and administration/leadership (n = 4); 3 of the administrators had a nursing background. Transcripts were analysed using a semantic, inductive approach with two coders using a codebook to ensure reliability. Results Participants felt that pain care was important, but that it needs to take greater priority in the hospital. In our analysis, we identified four core needs that nurses and other HCPs have to provide better pain care: 1. Better acknowledgement of child and family experiences; 2. Better visual and written knowledge translation tools for patients and families; 3. Better provision of verbal pain education to children and families by nurses and other HCPs; and 4. Help for patients and families to advocate for better pain care when they feel their needs are not being met. Conclusions Nurses and other HCPs value patient- and family-centered pain care, and wish to empower families to advocate for it when it is sub-optimal.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0844-5621
1705-7051
DOI:10.1177/08445621241228063