Turkish Nurses' Use of Nonpharmacological Methods for Relieving Children's Postoperative Pain.

CONTEXT: The experience of pain is frequently observed among children undergoing surgery. Hospitalization and surgery are stressful experiences for those children. OBJECTIVE: The research was conducted to investigate and analyze Turkish nurses' use of nonpharmacological methods to relieve postoperative pain in children. DESIGN: The study was cross-sectional and descriptive. SETTING: The study took place at 2 hospitals in eastern Turkey. PARTICIPANTS: Participants were 143 nurses whose patients had undergone surgical procedures at the 2 hospitals. OUTCOME MEASURES: The researchers used a questionnaire, a checklist of nonpharmacological methods, and a visual analogue scale (VAS) to collect the data. To assess the data, descriptive statistics and the χ² test were used. RESULTS: Of the 143 nurses, 73.4% initially had applied medication when the children had pain. Most of the nurses (58.7%) stated the children generally experienced a middle level of postoperative pain. The most frequent practices that the nurses applied after the children's surgery were (1) "providing verbal encouragement" (90.2%), a cognitive-behavioral method; (2) "a change in the child's position" (85.3%), a physical method; (3) "touch" (82.5%), a method of emotional support; and (4) "ventilation of the room" (79.7%), a regulation of the surroundings. Compared with participants with other educational levels, the cognitive-behavioral methods were the ones most commonly used by the more educated nurses (P < .05): (1) encouraging patients with rewards, (2) helping them think happy thoughts, (3) helping them use their imaginations, (4) providing music, and (5) reading books. Female nurses used the following methods more than the male nurses did (P < .05): (1) providing encouragement with rewards, (2) helping patients with deep breathing, (3) keeping a desired item beside them, (4) changing their positions, and (5) ventilating the room. CONCLUSION: Undergoing surgery is generally a painful experience for children. Nurses most commonly use cognitive-behavioral methods in the postoperative care of their pediatric patients after surgery.

Effects of massage therapy on pain and anxiety arising from intrathecal therapy or bone marrow aspiration in children with cancer.

Cancer and its treatment are stressful and reduce the quality of life in children. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of massage therapy on pain and anxiety arising from intrathecal therapy or bone marrow aspiration in children with cancer. We conducted a controlled pretest/posttest quasi-experimental study at a paediatric oncology unit in Turkey. Twenty-five children were enrolled in this study. Their pain and anxiety were determined using a visual analogue scale. When the pretest and posttest pain and anxiety levels of the groups were compared, no statistically significant difference was found (P > 0.05). It was determined that pain and anxiety levels in the experimental group decreased significantly. This study provides preliminary evidence for the effectiveness in children of massage in reducing pain and anxiety arising from intrathecal therapy or bone marrow aspiration.

Effect of aromatherapy massage on dysmenorrhea in Turkish students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aromatherapy massage on dysmenorrhea. The study used a quasiexperimental design with the subjects as their own control. Every participant applied both aromatherapy massage with lavender oil and placebo massage with odorless liquid petrolatum [soft paraffin]. The population comprised 438 midwifery and nursing students. The 150 students who had declared that they had suffered from dysmenorrhea used a visual analog scale to indicate their level of pain. Higher scores reflected a greater severity of dysmenorrhea. Forty-four students volunteered to participate in the study. When the lavender massage and the placebo massage were compared, the visual analog scale score of the lavender massage was found to decrease at a statistically significant rate. This study showed that massage was effective in reducing dysmenorrhea. In addition, this study showed that the effect of aromatherapy massage on pain was higher than that of placebo massage.

Turkish children loved distraction: using kaleidoscope to reduce perceived pain during venipuncture.

AIM: To assess the effect of distraction (looking through kaleidoscopes) to reduce perceived pain, during venipuncture in healthy school-age children. BACKGROUND: Distraction has been noted to be an effective method to help children cope with painful procedures. In the studies carried out, although it was found out that distraction made with different distracters reduced the pain of venipuncture, there is only one study confirming analgesic effect of distracters. DESIGN: The study was carried out as an intervention-control group design. METHOD: Children (n = 206), in whom venipuncture was applied in a laboratory for examination between the dates January-September 2006, were included in the study. The data were obtained by a form determining introductory features of the children and Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale and Visual Analogue Scale evaluating the pain. Descriptive statistics was used in the assessment of the data and t-test was used in comparisons of dependent-independent groups. RESULTS: Pain levels of the children according to both scales in intervention group were lower than those of control group. But, it was detected that the distinction between score averages of intervention and control group of Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale, not Visual Analogue Scale, was statistically significant (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: It was detected that the distraction made with kaleidoscope effectively reduced the pain related to venipuncture in healthy school children and that some features of the children influenced the perception of pain. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Distraction with kaleidoscope is a method, which the nurse will be able to use for venipuncture to obtain optimal pain control. In addition, it is important for a nurse to know some features about the children for a pain free and positive experience.