The use of nonpharmacological methods for children's postoperative pain relief: Singapore nurses' perspectives

Abstract

Nurses need training and education on nonpharmacological pain relief methods, particularly on methods that have been shown to be effective in prior research but that were less often used by nurses in this study: massage, thermal regulation, imagery, and positive reinforcement.

Turkish Pediatric Nurses’ Use of Non-Pharmacological Methods for Postoperative Pain Relief in 6 to 12 Year Old Children

“…Moreover, our results show, that encouraging children to ask about their misconceptions as well as making sure, that they understand the information, are also warrant for more attention to postoperative pain control. In this study, the half of nurses reported to give routinely preparatory information and the same finding has been revealed in the study from He et al [34].…”

“…According to these results, ıt is considered, that nurses in the study from He et al [34] pay more attention to inform patients postoperatively about these techniques. It can be concluded, that more attention should be paid to inform patients about other possible pain relieving techniques in these areas to optimize postoperative pain control.…”

“…Whereas, He et al [9,34] and Çelebioğlu et al [35] reported, that cognitive-behavioural methods are most commonly used. This statement is not consistent with our findings.…”

“…Concerning the way of giving information, He et al showed, that only 58% of nurses nearly always discussed observed fear or anxiety openly with the child [34]. According to our research results, we could demonstrate, that nurses provide information to patients using a more appropriate method (encouraging the child to ask about misconceptions, talking openly about the child's sansations, giving information honestly and openly, making sure that the information has been understood) and finally pediatric postoperative pain could be reduced more effectively compared to the study from He et al [34]. In addition, some institutional factors limited nurses' practical use of non-pharmacological methods in Turkey, the most common factors were shortage of nurses and heavy workload, which is consistent with previous findings [9,10,32].…”

The Effectiveness of Therapeutic Play Intervention in Reducing Perioperative Anxiety, Negative Behaviors, and Postoperative Pain in Children Undergoing Elective Surgery: A Systematic Review

“…Thus, future studies should control the confounding effects of types of surgery and pain medication on children's perioperative anxiety, negative behaviors, and postoperative pain. In addition, because of the fact that nonpharmacologic methods were also reported to be used to help relieve children's postoperative pain (He et al, 2007(He et al, , 2011 Among the six studies, two (Fincher et al, 2012;Kain et al, 1998) examined the effectiveness of therapeutic play intervention in parents' anxiety. Both studies found significant, positive effects on parents' anxiety before operation, as confirmed by both subjective and objective outcome measurements (Fincher et al, 2012;Kain et al, 1998).…”