Università degli studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia

Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia
Corso di laurea in infermieristica - Sede di Modena

Abstract

In this thesis several aspects regarding children’s pain assessment were investigated, and the various pediatric pain rating scales currently in use were also analyzed.
From this analysis it was discovered that the pain intensity scales most commonly used either wounds are: the FLACC behavioral pain scale with children under the age of 3, the Wong Baker pain scale with children between the ages of 4 and 7 and the VAS pain scale with children over 8 years of age.
Also included in this thesis are indications regarding how a nurse should approach a child in a stressful or fearful situation, such as with a sutured wound in the emergency room.
Based on a clinical case presented during my apprenticeship, I wanted to describe in synthetic terms how nurses should manage and assist a child in distress due to a wound, treated with a local anesthetic LAT gel before suturing.
After realizing that the child needed to be comforted and needed relief from the pain, I formulated a diagnosis using NANDA-I and I developed the plan, using the NOC to define the expected results and the NIC to establish the interventions necessary to manage the pain. 
By reference of the bibliography I report the efficiency in reducing pain and the security of the topical anesthetic LAT gel, which combines to the analgesic power of lidocaine and tetracaine the adrenaline vasoconstriction effect, without creating pain at the moment of injection.
To this merit, I report within my thesis a synthetic study, conducted at the Pavullo nel Frignano hospital with  Dr. Barozzi, Emergency Room doctor, and with Dr. Forte, Pediatric doctor at the same hospital, children’s pain assessment with superficial wounds treated with LAT gel, in which I participated in retrieving data during my apprenticeship at this emergency room.