Nurses Journey of Postoperative Pediatric Pain Care: A Qualitative Study Using Participation Observation in Indonesia

BACKGROUND: Unrelieved post-operative pain in children continues to be a major clinical problem, despite advances in pain management in Indonesia. The significance of the study is to address the gap in nurses’ knowledge of pain management may be having. The study aim was to examine nurses post-operative pain care in an Indonesian Hospital. METHODS: A naturalistic, observational qualitative approach was undertaken to observe16 participating nurses who cared for 16 children post-surgery. Each participant was observed continuously during three to four shifts of 5 h each over a 2-month period. Content analysis was performed to interpret the results. RESULTS: We found that, in general, the nurses did not routinely and comprehensively assess the extent to which the children were in pain post-surgery and that they rarely used non-pharmacological interventions. Such these interventions were often conducted by parents. However, the nurses readily provided analgesic drugs as needed to the children, especially during the first 48 h post-operative period. Our findings support those of previous studies that found the role of nurses in pain management is primarily administration of analgesic drugs. Moreover, such pain care did not conform to recommendations based on current evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Post-operative pain care by nurses in a pediatric surgical ward were still un-optimal. These findings increase our knowledge and understanding about the complexities of postoperative pain care of children in Indonesia. Post-operative pain management in pediatric patients could be improved by increasing cooperation among healthcare professionals and parents. Post-operative pain management should be always put as a priority