Abstract
Purpose: To improve pediatric pain management through the implementation of a pain management bundle, including expanding nursing knowledge and improving communication between nurses and the patients/families on pain management in a 23-bed medical surgical unit within a midwestern freestanding children’s hospital.|Background: Evaluating pain within the pediatric population is complicated by the child’s age, cognitive ability, separation from parents, the hospital setting, and difficulty in quantifying a subjective experience. Research supports that nurses are currently inconsistent with their approach to pediatric pain management. Lack of communication between nurses and caregivers is identified as a source of poor pain management within the pediatric population.|Methods: Nurses received education via live-PowerPoint presentation that highlighted current institutional pain management policies and reviewed appropriate pediatric pain management strategies. Following the education, dry-erase boards were placed in patients’ rooms to serve as a communication tool between the nurses and the patients/families to facilitate dialogue concerning pain management. A pre/post intervention survey was completed by patients/families to evaluate the effectiveness of the pain management bundle. The dry-erase boards were utilized for a total of 10 weeks.|Results: Results indicated that both satisfaction with pain management and nurses’ communication increased by 8%, which ultimately achieved 100% satisfaction in both areas. 79% of patients/families indicated that the boards improved overall pain management and 83% found the pain management board to be a helpful tool in communicating with nurses about pain. Over half of the participants stated they utilized the pain management dry-erase boards.|Conclusion: The pain management dry-erase boards were well received by both the patients/families and appeared to improve communication regarding pain management.|Keywords: pediatric, children, pain, management, nursing, knowledge, communication, and satisfaction