Increasing nurse's knowledge of neonatal pain assessment through inservice education program

Authors

Carol Beloff, Florida International University

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

Master of Science (MS)

Major/Program

Nursing

First Advisor's Name

Luz S. Porter

First Advisor's Committee Title

Committee Chair

Second Advisor's Name

Janice Hayes

Third Advisor's Name

Andrew Kairella

Date of Defense

12-8-1994

Abstract

Recognizing neonatal pain is a challenge for nurses working with newborns due to the complexity of the pain phenomenon. Pain is subjective, and infants lack the ability to communicate, and their pain is difficult to recognize. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of education on the NICU nurses' ability to assess neonatal pain. With a better understanding of pain theory and the effects of pain on the newborn the nurse will be better able to assess newborns with pain. Designed as a quasi-experimental one-group pretest and posttest study, the data was collected on a convenience sample of 49 registered nurses employed in the neonatal and special care nursery units at a Childrens Hospital in the Miami area. The nurses were surveyed on the assessment of neonatal pain using the General Information and Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire. After the initial survey, the nurses were inserviced on neonatal pain assessment using a one hour inservice education program. One week after the intervention the nurse was asked to complete the questionnaire again. Data analysis involved comparision of pre and post intervention findings using descriptive methods, t test, correlation coefficients, and ANOVA , where applicable. Findings revealed a significant ( p=.006) increase in nurse's knowledge of neonatal pain assessment after completing the educational inservice when comparing the pre-test and post-test results.

Identifier

FI14050487

Comments

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Recommended Citation

Beloff, Carol, "Increasing nurse's knowledge of neonatal pain assessment through inservice education program" (1994). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1485.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1485