Paeds Cases · fetal-neonatal-and-perinatal
Neonatal pain assessment and procedural comfort - structured clinical encounter
Structured encounter testing the approach to procedural comfort in a preterm infant undergoing repeated heel lances: the neuroscience, the validated assessment tool, the comfort ladder with the sucrose regimen, and the unit-wide quality standard.
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Station brief (candidate)
You are the neonatal registrar. A 27-week gestation infant, now 10 days old and growing well on continuous gastric feeds, has capillary gases taken by heel lance twice daily as part of a planned course. With each lance the infant grimaces, desaturates, and goes rigid. The bedside nurse asks how to make the lances less painful. The team asks you to explain why this infant is vulnerable, to choose the assessment tool, to build the comfort plan with the sucrose regimen, and to recommend one unit-wide measure that reduces the cumulative pain burden. You have 12 minutes with the team and 5 minutes for examiner discussion. [1]
References5ShowHide
- [1]Anand KJ; International Evidence-Based Group for Neonatal Pain Consensus statement for the prevention and management of pain in the newborn. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med, 2001.PMID 11177093
- [2]Stevens B; Johnston C; Petryshen P; Taddio A Premature Infant Pain Profile: development and initial validation. Clin J Pain, 1996.PMID 8722730
- [4]Stevens B; Yamada J; Ohlsson A; et al Sucrose for analgesia in newborn infants undergoing painful procedures. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2016.PMID 27420164
- [6]Pillai Riddell RR; Racine NM; Gennis HG; et al Non-pharmacological management of infant and young child procedural pain. Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2015.PMID 26630545
- [9]Gibbins S; Stevens B; Hodnett E; et al Efficacy and safety of sucrose for procedural pain relief in preterm and term neonates. Nurs Res, 2002.PMID 12464757