Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on Improving Family-Centred Pain Care in a Tertiary Pediatric Centre

Abstract

Background Despite being a core component of family-centered and compassionate care, children's pain is often undertreated in Canadian hospitals. Nurses’ and other healthcare professionals’ (HCPs) ability to understand and respond to a child and their family's pain care needs is integral to improving this care in a family-centered manner. Purpose To understand nurses’ and other HCPs’ perceptions of child and family needs to make care more collaborative and patient- and family-centered. Methods Eighteen participants were recruited and represented the specialties of nursing ( n = 8), psychology ( n = 1), child life services ( n = 2), medicine/surgery ( n = 3), and administration/leadership ( n = 4); 3 of the administrators had a nursing background. Transcripts were analysed using a semantic, inductive approach with two coders using a codebook to ensure reliability. Results Participants felt that pain care was important, but that it needs to take greater priority in the hospital. In our analysis, we identified four core needs that nurses and other HCPs have to provide better pain care: 1. Better acknowledgement of child and family experiences; 2. Better visual and written knowledge translation tools for patients and families; 3. Better provision of verbal pain education to children and families by nurses and other HCPs; and 4. Help for patients and families to advocate for better pain care when they feel their needs are not being met. Conclusions Nurses and other HCPs value patient- and family-centered pain care, and wish to empower families to advocate for it when it is sub-optimal.