Analysis of agreement in the evaluation of pain in newborns during hepatitis B vaccination

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Healthy newborns inevitably undergo painful procedures from the first hours of life and pain assessment is essential for choosing the right treatment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the agreement between evaluators of the Neonatal Facial Coding System (NFCS) pain scale in healthy newborns before, during and after hepatitis B vaccination performed in the first 48 hours of life. METHODS: This is an analysis of agreement between two evaluators, carried out as part of a quasi-experimental intervention study, developed in a maternity hospital in Belo Horizonte. Two researchers carried out an independent evaluation based on filming 2 minutes before, during and 2 minutes after the procedure. RESULTS: The study included 129 newborns between August and December 2022, 60 (46.51%) in the control group (facilitated restraint) and 69 (53.49%) in the intervention group (breastfeeding). There was substantial agreement between the researchers before (0.69) and after (0.70) vaccination. When the agreement between the groups was analyzed, it was substantial for the evaluations of newborns submitted to facilitated restraint before and after the procedure. In the breastfeeding group, agreement was almost perfect before and substantial after the procedure. CONCLUSION: There was substantial agreement between the researchers who used the NFCS scale before, during and after vaccination. This data validates the use of the scales when assessing the pain of newborns undergoing easy restraint and breastfeeding, even though it is an indirect method of assessment. It is important to highlight the importance of periodic staff training programs for the use of pain assessment scales at bedside.

Keywords

• newborn
• nursing
• pain assessment
• vaccination