Continuing Professional Development: Challenges of managing paediatric pain
Abstract
Overview
Pain is the most common presenting symptom in patients in the emergency setting, and, as such, the management of pain has been described as potentially one of the most important outcome measures for many prehospital conditions. However, paediatric pain management is a complicated issue, and various barriers exist which prevent paediatric patients receiving optimal prehospital analgesia. These could be described as barriers attributable to the provider, the system, and the patient. This module will investigate each of the three hurdles which act to prevent optimal prehospital paediatric pain management by examining current scholarly evidence, and conclude by suggesting solutions to begin overcoming the challenge of managing children in pain in the prehospital setting.
Learning Outcomes
After completing this module you will be able to:
▪ Understand the concept of the ‘hierarchy of evidence’, and describe its importance in healthcare research.
▪ Outline how to undertake a literature search
▪ Describe the three main barriers in the adequate provision of analgesia to children in the prehospital arena.
▪ Understand the implications of poor pain management in children.
▪ Identify the analgesics currently recommended for paramedic use in the management of pain.
▪ Reflect on the ways in which you could alter your practice to achieve better prehospital pain management for the children you treat.