NCT06885437

Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses' Assessment of Preterm Infants' Pain and Sedation

Neonatal Intensive Care Nurses' Assessment of Preterm Infants' Pain and Sedation: Inter-Rater Reliability

• Status: Completed
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 190 (actual)
• Sponsor: Acibadem University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: —
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The aim of this study was to investigate the consistency of NICU nurses' assessment of pain and sedation using NPASS in preterm infants in the NICU

Detailed description

The experience of pain is a common occurrence for infants in NICUs, with many undergoing painful procedures for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Effective pain management is a critical issue, as repeated painful experiences and stress in the early stages of life have the potential to have adverse short- and long-term effects on infant health. Although the importance of assessment and management of pain in neonates is well known, these practices still need to be improved in the NICU. Firstly, pain and sedation assessment with reliable tools is needed to provide adequate pain management practices. Because the evaluation of the pain and sedation level directs the treatment, thus avoiding inadequate or unnecessary treatment applied to the infants. However, the assessment of pain in newborns is a challenging endeavor, due to the inability of this age group to communicate, the existence of variations in pain responses based on age, the lack of training in the recognition of pain in premature infants, and the practical limitations of current assessment tools. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the inter-rater reliability of the N-PASS in a clinical actual setting. In this context, there needs to be consistency between assessors in pain assessment. As a result, the aim of this study was to investigate the consistency of NICU nurses' assessment of pain and sedation using NPASS in preterm infants in the NICU.

Conditions

• Nurse Care Coordination

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Pain and sedation assessment with the N-PASS scale by each nurse	After a painful procedure, the infant's N-PASS pain and sedation scores were assessed simultaneously by three observers (two researchers and the patients' head nurses) independently and blinded.

Timeline

• Start date: 2023-01-02
• Primary completion: 2023-03-25
• Completion: 2023-03-25
• First posted: 2025-03-20
• Last updated: 2025-03-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Turkey (Türkiye)