IMPROVING NEONATAL PROCEDURAL PAIN MANAGEMEMT

Neonates experience repeated routine painful procedures during the course of hospitalization and often times this is done with no measure of pain relief. Although nurses are aware of hospital guidelines and policies and procedures for alleviating neonatal pain, adherence with documentation of pain assessments and reassessments remains low. In March, 2014, a neonatal pain audit was conducted to assess nurse’s compliance with neonatal pain management in a Maternal/Neonatal Unit in a large Southern California Magnet® hospital. Audit revealed a lack of documented neonatal pain scores and post pain assessments. To improve documentation of neonatal pain; collaboration with Information Technology (IT) Department was accomplished to integrate a computer based build using the electronic health system and nursing educational interventions. The computer integration build makes it difficult for nurses to fail to document pain assessment before and after painful procedures. An alert is built into the system to remind nurses to document a pain assessment at the start of painful procedures as well as post procedure/intervention. The procedural pain computer integration education involves use of IT-created pictorial representations of how to document from beginning to end. Planned evaluation includes assessment of workability, nurse’s knowledge of procedural pain management, and audits procedural pain management documentation.