Improvement of Post-surgery Pain Management in Children: A Participatory Action Research

Pain management in children is one of their rights and a treatment priority. This issue is considered as one of the accreditation standards in hospitals. Therefore, it is necessary to anticipate enhancement of pain management quality in hospital plans. This participatory action research (PAR) aimed to improve pain management in children under surgery.

This qualitative study was performed as a PAR. Steps of action research, including problem defining, planning, execution, and evaluation were assessed for pain management in children. The research was completed in department of pediatrics surgery, and operation room of a selected teaching hospital in Isfahan, Iran. Participants were managers, nurses, doctors, mothers, researchers, and personnel of department of pediatrics surgery and the operation room. Purposive sampling was performed until data saturation. The data were collected through participatory observation, interview, meetings, and referring to the documents of children under operation. The data were analyzed by content analysis and discussed according to lewin’s change theory.

Findings of the present study demonstrated that pain management involves three areas of assessment, intervention, and pain evaluation. These subjects manifested as six themes, namely “necessity of understanding pain management”, “change painfulness”, “continuity of pain screening and recording”, “evaluating mothers”, “change struggles”, and “progression in training programs”.

According to the results of this study, continuous management and evaluations of pain in children after surgeries seems to be necessary. It is recommended that specific training programs and specific post-operation protocols be prepared for children.