The nurses of the neonatal unit facing the newborn with pain

Abstract

This work is a quantitative research put into practice with nurses from a Neonatal Unit of a public maternity in the city of Maceió. It aims to verify the understanding of the nurses in relation to pain in newborn babies, identify how to react in the situation of a newborn with pain, and also to describe how these professionals evaluated pain in the newborn. The data collection took place in February 2007 with 15 nurses. The data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The analysis verifi ed that all nurses who participated in the survey affi rmed that the newborn babies were feeling pain, that that signal is evaluated by means of physiological and behavioral alterations; however, only 01 affi rmed to have used a multidimensional scale. When pain is observed the nurses use pharmacological and non-pharmacological measures. The present study allowed us to understand the phenomena of pain in newborn babies, so that the health professionals can promote actions in their care to alleviate the pain, with the guarantee of a better quality of life for the newborn babies.