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Pain in perspective

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Child and Infant Pain

Abstract

Children and infants, like the rest of humanity, can and do perceive and experience pain. Many misconceptions have, until relatively recently, been held by health professionals about children’s and infants’ ability to perceive and experience pain. Of all of these perhaps the most fundamentally damaging one was the myth that children and infants were unable to perceive and experience pain. This myth, which has now been rejected, has allowed and perhaps even encouraged the dismissal of pain as an issue, and chronic mismanagement of the child in pain has resulted. Thankfully pain is now an issue that the nurse and the rest of the multidisciplinary team cannot ignore. Pain is now accepted as an area of fundamental responsibility for the nurse which is important; however, what is more important is that responsibility is fulfilled with all children and their families. Effective pain management starts with a commitment to believe in the pain that the child is reporting and to work with them and their family to achieve the best level of control that is possible. Pain management is based on honesty and trust and effective communication skills; without these essential skills pain management will be flawed.

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  1. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    Bernadette Carter (Senior Lecturer in Health Care Studies)

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  1. Bernadette Carter
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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Carter, B. (1994). Pain in perspective. In: Child and Infant Pain. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3366-9_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-3366-9_1

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-56593-181-7

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