Pain management experience of nurses, children and parents
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The experiences and interactions of nurses, children and parents during postoperative pain management in hospitalised children
IRAS ID
249804
Contact name
Carol Mackintosh-Franklin
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Manchester
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Pain is a universal human experience but also a subjective and individual phenomenon. It is a stressful experience for anyone, but it can be extremely stressful and anxiety-provoking for children as they may not be able to articulate their pain experiences properly. Each year, more than one million children have surgery in England, and despite the availability of postoperative pain management guidelines in children, a significant number of them still experience moderate to severe postoperative pain.
Although nurses directly deliver the entire pain management process, the application is not restricted to them alone. A collaboration between nurses, children and their parents is necessary at each step of the pain management. Furthermore, the engagement of children and their parents in their healthcare has become significantly important and children and their parents rightly expect to be involved in decisions regarding their pain management.
Therefore, nurse-child-parent interaction is a cornerstone of postoperative pain management and it has a significant effect on the quality of pain management in children. Based on current understanding, no study that explores the nurse-child-parent pain experiences and interactions exists, nor do any similar studies using a grounded theory methodology. Therefore, this study aims to explore the experience of nurses, children and their parents and the interaction between them during postoperative pain management in hospitalised children using a grounded theory approach.
The participants will be nurses, children and their parents in the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital. The proposed sample size is 10 triads of nurses, school-aged (6-11-year-olds) children and their parents. Around 60-90 minutes of face-to-face semi-structured interviews will be conducted with nurses and parents. The interviews with children will be approximately 20 minutes with the use of a drawing technique which will provide familiar materials and tools to encourage children to engage in conversation.REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - South Yorkshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/YH/0336
Date of REC Opinion
25 Sep 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion