Parents in Neonatal Pain Management—An International Survey of Parent-Delivered Interventions and Parental Pain Assessment
Alexandra Ullsten,
Serdar Beken,
Marsha Campbell-Yeo,
Giacomo Cavallaro,
Nunzia Decembrino,
Xavier Durrmeyer,
Felipe Garrido,
Guðrún Kristjánsdóttir,
Abigail Kusi Amponsah,
Paola Lago,
Helle Haslund-Thomsen,
Shalini Ojha,
Tarja Pölkki,
Monica Riaza Gomez,
Jean-Michel Roue,
Sinno Simons,
Rebeccah Slater,
Rikke-Louise Stenkjaer,
Sezin Ünal,
Gerbrich van den Bosch,
Joke Wielenga,
Mats Eriksson,
on behalf of the ESPR Special Interest Group for Neonatal Pain,
PEARL Research Group
Affiliations
Alexandra Ullsten
Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Health Sciences, Örebro University, S701 82 Örebro, Sweden
Serdar Beken
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University, 34752 Istanbul, Turkey
Marsha Campbell-Yeo
School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada
Giacomo Cavallaro
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, 20122 Milan, Italy
Nunzia Decembrino
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, AOU Policlinico G. Rodolico San Marco, 95123 Catania, Italy
Xavier Durrmeyer
Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Centre Hospitalier Intercommunal de Créteil, 94000 Créteil, France
Felipe Garrido
Department of Pediatrics, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, 28027 Madrid, Spain
Guðrún Kristjánsdóttir
Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, School of Health Sciences, University of Iceland, IS-101 Reykjavik, Iceland
Abigail Kusi Amponsah
Department of Nursing, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, College of Health Sciences, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, University Post Office, KNUST, Kumasi, Ghana
Paola Lago
NICU, Department of Critical Care, Cà Foncello Regional Hospital, 31100 Treviso, Italy
Helle Haslund-Thomsen
Clinical Nursing Research Unit, Aalborg University Hospital, 9000 Aalborg, Denmark
Shalini Ojha
Centre for Perinatal Research, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
Tarja Pölkki
Research Unit of Health Sciences and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, FI-90014 Oulu, Finland
Monica Riaza Gomez
Clínica Universidad de Navarra, 31008 Pamplona, Spain
Jean-Michel Roue
Department of Neonatal Medicine, University Hospital of Brest, 29200 Brest, France
Sinno Simons
Department of Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care, Division of Neonatology, Erasmus UMC–Sophia Dr. Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Rebeccah Slater
Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford OX1 2JD, UK
Rikke-Louise Stenkjaer
Department of Neonatology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
Sezin Ünal
Division of Neonatology, Baskent University Faculty of Medicine, 06790 Ankara, Turkey
Gerbrich van den Bosch
Department of Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care, Division of Neonatology, Erasmus UMC–Sophia Dr. Molewaterplein 40, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Joke Wielenga
Emma Children’s Hospital, 1105 AZ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Mats Eriksson
Faculty of Medicine and Health, School of Health Sciences, Örebro University, S701 82 Örebro, Sweden
on behalf of the ESPR Special Interest Group for Neonatal Pain
Background: While parent-delivered pain management has been demonstrated to effectively reduce neonatal procedural pain responses, little is known about to what extent it is utilized. Our aim was to explore the utilization of parents in neonatal pain management and investigate whether local guidelines promote parent-delivered interventions. Methods: A web-based survey was distributed to neonatal units worldwide. Results: The majority of the 303 responding neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) from 44 countries were situated in high-income countries from Europe and Central Asia. Of the responding units, 67% had local guidelines about neonatal pain management, and of these, 40% answered that parental involvement was recommended, 27% answered that the role of parents in pain management was mentioned as optional, and 32% responded that it was not mentioned in the guidelines. According to the free-text responses, parent-delivered interventions of skin-to-skin contact, breastfeeding, and parental live singing were the most frequently performed in the NICUs. Of the responding units, 65% answered that parents performed some form of pain management regularly or always. Conclusions: There appears to be some practice uptake of parent-delivered pain management to reduce neonatal pain in high-income countries. Additional incorporation of these interventions into NICU pain guidelines is needed, as well as a better understanding of the use of parent-delivered pain management in low- and middle-income countries.
