Managing Infant Pain

Paper Summary:

This paper contends that because infants cannot report their pain, they are often vulnerable to under treatment. The paper explains how infants must rely on caregivers to interpret cues of pain and to manage the pain accordingly. The paper claims that nurses are therefore an important advocate for the interpretation and control of pain. The paper outlines the many pain inventories that help the staff assess the infants' pain level and contends that due to this, there are conflicts as to the best method to assess pain. The paper examines the lack of standardized pain assessment and the best method for pain management, citing that this creates a risk for ineffective pain relief for this vulnerable population.

From the Paper:

"The nurse is a vital advocate for the infant undergoing any painful procedure. Assessing infant pain is a complex phenomenon that continues to challenge nurses daily. Identifying behaviors may be the key in developing newborn pain assessment efforts. The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage or described in terms of such damage" (McCaffery & Pasero, 1999). The IASP recently added to their original definition that states that the inability to communicate in no way negates the possibility that an individual is experiencing pain and is in need of appropriate pain relieving treatment (Gibbins, Stevens, Hodnett, Pinelli, Ohlsson, Arne, & Darlington, 2002). The IASP revision incorporates persons who cannot communicate their pain, such as neonates, must rely on others to make inferences from behavioral and physiological indices for the assessment and management of pain (Gibbins et al., 2002). "

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