Turkish Nurses' Use of Nonpharmacological Methods for Relieving Children's Postoperative Pain

Abstract

Context: The experience of pain is frequently observed among children undergoing surgery. Hospitalization and surgery are stressful experiences for those children.

Objective: The research was conducted to investigate and analyze Turkish nurses' use of nonpharmacological methods to relieve postoperative pain in children.

Design: The study was cross-sectional and descriptive.

Setting: The study took place at 2 hospitals in eastern Turkey.

Participants: Participants were 143 nurses whose patients had undergone surgical procedures at the 2 hospitals.

Outcome measures: The researchers used a questionnaire, a checklist of nonpharmacological methods, and a visual analogue scale (VAS) to collect the data. To assess the data, descriptive statistics and the χ² test were used.

Results: Of the 143 nurses, 73.4% initially had applied medication when the children had pain. Most of the nurses (58.7%) stated the children generally experienced a middle level of postoperative pain. The most frequent practices that the nurses applied after the children's surgery were (1) "providing verbal encouragement" (90.2%), a cognitive-behavioral method; (2) "a change in the child's position" (85.3%), a physical method; (3) "touch" (82.5%), a method of emotional support; and (4) "ventilation of the room" (79.7%), a regulation of the surroundings. Compared with participants with other educational levels, the cognitive-behavioral methods were the ones most commonly used by the more educated nurses (P < .05): (1) encouraging patients with rewards, (2) helping them think happy thoughts, (3) helping them use their imaginations, (4) providing music, and (5) reading books. Female nurses used the following methods more than the male nurses did (P < .05): (1) providing encouragement with rewards, (2) helping patients with deep breathing, (3) keeping a desired item beside them, (4) changing their positions, and (5) ventilating the room.

Conclusion: Undergoing surgery is generally a painful experience for children. Nurses most commonly use cognitive-behavioral methods in the postoperative care of their pediatric patients after surgery.