Publication Date
Spring 4-21-2015
School
School of Nursing
Major
Nursing (B.S.N.)
Keywords
pain management, neonatal intensive care unit
Disciplines
Maternal, Child Health and Neonatal Nursing | Medicine and Health Sciences
Recommended Citation
Hagy, Holly N., "Pain Management in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit" (2015). Senior Honors Theses. 523.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/honors/523
Abstract
While pain management in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) was thought to be useless due to the infants’ inabilities to experience pain, research has confirmed that infants can and do experience pain at the same, if not greater, level of intensity as adults experience pain. Painful stimuli cause a system-wide sympathetic nervous system response that can cause damage when prolonged or unmanaged. There are multitudes of ways to treat an infant’s pain, but there seems to be a discrepancy between the knowledge that health care workers have regarding pain management in the NICU and the actual implementation of that knowledge. If this canyon between knowledge and action can be bridged, research supports that the overall care and patient outcomes of the infants will improve.
