Nurses’ perceptions of parental guidance in pediatric surgical pain relief

The aim of this study was to describe nurses’ perceptions of how they guide parents in the relief of their childʹs (aged 8–12 years) surgical pain in the hospital, and factors related to this function. The convenience sample consisted of 162 nurses working on the pediatric surgical wards of five university hospitals in Finland. The data was collected with a Likert-type instrument designed for this purpose. The results of this study indicated that nurses felt parents were mostly well informed about their childʹs surgical procedure, including both cognitive and sensory information, and about the non-pharmacological methods employable for relieving their childʹs pain. However, some deficiency was identified in the preparatory information, as well as in the cognitive-behavioral and physical methods. Factors related to the nurses’ background, such as age, education, work experience and the nurseʹs own experiences with prior hospitalizations of their children, appeared to have some effects on their perceptions regarding parental guidance.