Barriers to Use of Non-pharmacological Pain Management Methods in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Many activities and interventions performed in neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) cause pain. Recurrent and untreated pain can lead to severe and harmful complications for neonates. Provision of pain management solutions is one of the duties of nurses. This study aimed to evaluate the barriers to use of non-pharmacological pain management methods in NICU from perspective of nurses.
This cross-sectional study was conducted on all nurses (N=57) working in NICU of hospital affiliated to Babol University of Medical Sciences, Babol, Iran selected by census method. Data were evaluated using a researcher-made questionnaire consisting of three parts and a three-point Likert scale. Barriers and suggested solutions were evaluated in the questionnaire, and the obtainable scores of the questionnaire related to the items of barriers and problems in application of non-pharmacological pain management methods and solutions were 17-51 and 12-36, respectively.
FINDINGS: According to the opinions of nurses, the most important barriers to the application of non-pharmacological pain management methods were shortage of personnel in each work shift (2.0±54.6), shortage of time and heavy workload (2.0±40.6), unawareness of pain complications (2.0±40.6) and long working hours and fatigue (2.0±35.6), respectively. Among the most important strategies mentioned by nurses were regularizing non-pharmacological pain management methods (2.0±63.6), regular holding of training classes (2.0±58.5), using matrons as tutors (2.0±53.6) and increasing the number of nurses in each shift or each ward (2.0±44.5).
According to the results of this study, inadequate nursing staff and insufficient knowledge about pain complications were the most important causes for lack of application of pain management methods for neonates.