The management of pain in preterm infants from the perspective of parents: a contribution to nursing

Abstract

Objectives: Analyze how parents recognize pain on their premature newborn children, Obtain knowledge about painful behavioral signs of the premature newborn recognized on them by their parents and describe the care practiced by them to minimize the pain of their premature child. Method: Qualitative study. Data collection instrument was the semi-structured interview with nine parents of premature newborns in a neonatal intensive care unit of a university hospital in Rio de Janeiro, it was applied between August and September 2011. Results: The analysis of thematic content was chosen as our data analysis, from this analysis five (5) categories were originated: The crying; Perception of body changes; The perception of face alterations; The perception of emotional alterations and Care performance to minimize pain. Conclusions: It was concluded that parents recognize signs of painful behavior of their premature newborn, identifying them by body, facial and emotional changes.