# Transcript

SPEAKER:
When children are in hospital, managing any pain they experience is essential. But it’s not always done effectively. Many parents leaving hospital report that their child experienced a lot of pain during their stay, but they also feel positive about the care they received, which means something isn’t working.
Following extensive research with pain specialists across the UK and internationally, we’ve developed a framework for delivering effective pain management for children. There are four components. The first is creating knowledgeable, confident practitioners. Many nurses can feel nervous about giving too much pain medicine. And when nurses are not feeling confident, they may administer less than what’s been prescribed to be on the safe side.
The second element is the support given to those staff. Making sure they have access to relevant protocols ensures that they rely less on their own judgment and more on proven best practice. Pain protocols with well-evidenced guidelines for predictable scenarios are usually created by dedicated teams after a lot of hard work. But when the whole hospital implements them, they are shown to make effective pain management easier to achieve.
Thirdly, nurses need to involve parents and treat them as partners. After all, they have unique expertise when it comes to their child. But parents are often reluctant to point out that their child’s pain is not going away, so they need to be encouraged to speak up. Practitioners want to help, but if they don’t know a child is in pain, they can’t do anything about it.
Lastly, it’s important to take an individual approach to both the child and their family. Talking and listening to each child and finding out about their experience, understanding fears, likes, and dislikes makes it more likely that their pain can be managed effectively.
To be effective, all four components need to happen with everyone at all levels playing their part. If all practitioners start using this framework together, it can contribute to managing children’s pain a lot more effectively.