Children still experience pain during hospital stay: a cross-sectional study from four countries in Europe.

BACKGROUND: Little is known whether children experience pain during hospital stay from the child's own perspective or not. The existing studies tend to be based on a small number of children and therefore have limitations concerning the generalisability of the results. AIM: The aim of this study was to describe children's self-reported pain and experience concerning pain management during hospital stay. METHODS: This study has a quantitative cross-sectional design with descriptive statistics as data analysis. RESULTS: A total of 786 questionnaires, Pain in Children in Hospital, were distributed in four countries with the response rate of 75% which was almost equal between countries. Our result showed that 87% (503/579) children at hospital self-reported pain during the past 24 h. Nearly 63% of the children reported a pain score of > 5 the last 24 h. Most of children reported that they had received a question about pain from the hospital staff, and that the staff observed and assessed their pain. Totally 95% reported that they were satisfied with their pain relief during the last 24 h. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that when children were given the possibility to self-report pain, nearly 2/3 expressed that they had experienced pain during hospital stay. However, most of them reported satisfaction with pain management and their pain relief.

Heat capacity and thermal expansion of the itinerant helimagnet MnSi.

The heat capacity and thermal expansion of a high quality single crystal of MnSi were measured at ambient pressure at zero and high magnetic fields. The calculated magnetic entropy change in the temperature range 0-30 K is less than 0.1R, a low value that emphasizes the itinerant nature of magnetism in MnSi. A linear temperature term dominates the thermal expansion coefficient in the range 30-150 K, which correlates with an enhancement of the linear electronic term in the heat capacity. A surprising similarity among the variations of the heat capacity, thermal expansion coefficient and temperature derivative of the resistivity is observed through the phase transition in MnSi. Specific forms of the heat capacity, thermal expansion coefficient and temperature derivative of resistivity at the phase transition to a helical magnetic state near 29 K are interpreted as the combination of sharp first-order features and broad peaks or shallow valleys of as yet unknown origin. The appearance of these broad satellites probably hints at a frustrated magnetic state slightly above the transition temperature in MnSi.