Objective:to dimension the exposure of premature infants to painful procedures, relating the
distribution of the exposure to contextual factors, as well as to describe the
pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions health professionals use
during the first two weeks of the infant’s hospitalization at two neonatal
services. Method:descriptive-exploratory study in which the professionals registered the painful
procedures and pain relief interventions on a specific form in the patient file.
Results:the daily average of the 89 premature infants was 5.37 painful procedures,
corresponding to 6.56 during the first week of hospitalization and 4.18 during the
second week (p<0.0001). The most frequent procedures were nasal/oral
(35.85%) and tracheal aspirations (17.17%). The children under invasive
ventilation were the most exposed to painful procedures (71.2%). Only 44.9% of the
painful procedures received some intervention for the purpose of pain relief, the
most frequent being sucrose (78.21%) and continuing sedation (19.82%). Conclusion:acute pain was undertreated at these neonatal services, recommending greater
sensitization of the team for the effective use of the existing protocol and
implementation of other knowledge transfer strategies to improve neonatal pain
management.
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