.. ariables is examined (Nieswiadomy, 1998, p.
127) The experiences of nurses implementing the University of Wisconsin Childrens Hospital Pain Scale for Preverbal and Nonverbal Children are the phenomena being described in this study. The nurses involved in the study will attend an inservice describing and explaining how to use the UWCH Pain Scale for Preverbal and Nonverbal Children. The scale will be implemented for one month. At the end of the month, the nurses implementing the scale will be interviewed and data will be collected.Sample The sample will be a convenience sample of all thirty registered nurses working on the pediatric unit at a regional medical center. Data Collection Data for this study will be the self-report experiences of nurses participating in the study and will be collected through a semi-structured interview.
Set questions will be asked, but the researcher also will be able to ask probe questions to further clarify the responses. Both closed and open-ended questions will be used. The data will be collected by the researcher one month after the implementation of the scale into practice in a controlled environment, such as a conference room, obtained by the researcher.The researcher will make appointments with each nurse involved in the study to allow for adequate time for the interview and to ensure that all nurses are interviewed. The interview schedule is located in Appendix A.
Analytic Procedures Data collected will be compared across all participants of the study. Experiences will be analyzed for major themes, similarities, for opinions as to whether or not this scale is feasible to use in the clinical setting, and suggestions for improvement to the scale or means of implementation. Ethical Considerations This proposal will be submitted to the Institutional Review Board of the medical center for approval. Informed consent will be obtained from all participants by having the participants sign a statement of informed consent (Appendix B). The nurses as employees of the hospital are vulnerable subjects.
They will be guaranteed that their participation will in no way negatively affect their job. Participants will be guaranteed anonymity and confidentiality. The researcher will be the only person who can connect any data collected to the person it was collected from. All results will be generalized and in no way linked to any one nurse.
All subjects will participate of their own free will without the use of coercion.The benefits of this study appear to outweigh the risks. The benefits will be the reflection of nurses on their means of pain assessment of the preverbal population. There are no known significant risks in this study. All participants will be able to ask questions about the study and were given a means of contacting the researcher if any questions arose at any time before, during, and after the study is completed. Also, all participants will be informed as to how to obtain the results of the study once completed.
Plan for Communication of Results The results of the completed study will be submitted to The Journal of Pediatric Nursing for publication. Results will also be presented to the Pain Management Panel at the regional medical center. References Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. (2000, June 8).Assessment and diagnosis of pain in children. Houston.
Retrieved July 11, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://bayloraids.org/resources/childpain/assess.s html Broome, M. E., Richtsmeier, A.
, Maikler, V., and Alexander, M. A.(1996, May).
Pediatric pain practices: A national survey of health professionals. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 11, 312-320. Brown, R. E., Jr.(1997).
Care of children with pain. In M. Cahill (ed.), Expert pain management (pp. 348-357).
Springhouse, PA: Springhouse Corporation.Fuller, B. F. and Conner, D. A.
(1995, August).The effect of pain on infant behaviors. Clinical Nursing Research, 4, 253-273. Hudson, D.
C. (1997).Pain management in the hospitalized infant. Journal of the Society of Pediatric Nurses, 2, 93+.
Retrieved July 11, 2000 from Firstsearch database on the World Wide Web: http://firstsearch.oclc.org Jacob, E. and Puntillo, K.
A.(1999, May-June). A survey of nursing practice in the assessment and management of pain in children. Pediatric Nursing, 25, 278-286.
Jorgensen, K. M.(1999, December). Pain assessment and management in the newborn infant. Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing, 14, 349-256.
McCaffery, M., and Pasero, C. (1999). Pain: Clinical manual.
St.Louis: Mosby. Nieswiadomy, R. E. (1998).
Foundations of nursing research. Stamford, CT: Appleton & Lange. O Conner-Von, S. (2000, July 11).
Pediatric pain assessment. Iowa City: University of Iowa. Retrieved July 11, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://coninfo.nursing.uiowa.edu/sites/PedsPain/As sess?chiast.
html Soetenga, D., Frank, J., and Pellino, T.E.
(1999). Assessment of the validity and reliability of the University of Wisconsin Childrens Hospital pain scale for preverbal and nonverbal children.Pediatric Nursing, 25, pp. 670+. Retrieved July 11, 2000 from Firstsearch database on the World Wide Web: http://www.
firstsearch.oclc.org Soud, T. E. and Rogers, J. S.
(1998). Manual of pediatric emergency nursing. St. Louis: Mosby. Appendix A Interview Schedule Educational background (diploma, associates degree, B.S.
N, advanced degree)? Number of years in nursing? Years in pediatric nursing? What shift normally worked? Does unit have written standards for pain assessment? How did you assess the pain of the nonverbal child prior to implementation of the UWCH pain scale? Did you ever take into consideration the behavioral actions of the child to be indications of pain? If so, what behavioral characteristics? Do you feel that adequate explanation and/or instruction were given in regards of using the UWCH pain scale? Was the scale easy to use? Explain, how.What were your experiences in using the UWCH pain scale for preverbal and nonverbal children? What were the advantages/disadvantages of using the scale? Are there any areas where you feel the scale could be modified to ease use or improve the assessment of pain in this population? How would you compare the level of pain assessed using the UWCH pain scale to how you would have previously assessed the pain? Would you have assessed a higher or lower level of pain than what was assessed using the scale? Appendix B Statement of Informed Consent BRADLEY UNIVERSITY Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research I, , am being asked to participate in a research project entitled Experiences of Nurses Using the University of Wisconsin Childrens Hospital Pain Scale for Preverbal and Nonverbal Children: A Descriptive Study. This project is being conducted under the supervision of Brandee Witbracht and was approved by Bradley Universitys Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research on . From this project the investigators hope to learn the experiences of nursing implementing the UWCH pain scale.
An interview will be conducted after the scale is implemented and responses will be analyzed for themes, similarities, and opinions as to whether or not the scale is feasible for practice. As a participant in this project I shall be asked to attend an inservice explaining the scale and describing how to implement the scale.After the inservice, I will be asked to use the scale in my everyday assessment of pain in the nonverbal population for a period of one month. At the end of the month I will be interviewed by the researcher in a controlled setting obtained by the researcher. The nature of this study has been explained to me by Brandee Witbracht.
I understand that the anticipated benefits of my participation in this study are my reflections on my own practice and the protocols of my unit on the assessment of pain in the nonverbal population. There are no known significant risks in this study. The investigators will make every effort to safeguard the confidentiality of the information I provide.Any information obtained from this study that can be identified with me will remain confidential and will not be given to anyone without my permission.
If at any time I would like additional information about this project, I can contact Brandee Witbracht at Bradley Universitys Nursing Department. I understand that I have the right to refuse to participate in this study. I also understand that if I do agree to participate I have the right to change my mind at any time and stop my participation. I understand that grades and services I receive from Bradley University or my employment at will not be negatively affected by my refusal to participate or by my withdrawal from this project.
My signature below indicates that I have given my informed consent to participate in the above-described project. My signature also indicates that: I have been given the opportunity to ask any and all questions about the described project and my participation and that all of my questions have been answered to my satisfaction. I have been permitted to read this document and I have been given a signed copy of it. I am at least 18 years old. I am legally able to provide consent.To the best of my knowledge and belief I have no physical or mental illness or weakness that would be adversely affected by my participation in the described project.
Signature of Participant Date Signature of Witness Date Medicine Essays.
