Hospice and Palliative care

Biography

Biography: Tayseer Jamal Afifi

Abstract

Pain is now considered by many international pain societies to be the fifth vital sign. The need to assess and treat neonatal pain has been increasingly appreciated. So, proper assessment of pain is essential to allow safe and compassionate care of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The is the first national Palestinian study that involved 850 neonates at five NICUs in Gaza Strip and eight NICUs in West Bank. The study was in the year 2018 from August 15^th to November 1^st. Among the 850 observed neonates, 68% were males and the mean age was 9 days. Most of neonates were admitted within the first 24-hours of life primarily due to prematurity. Exposure to painful procedures was assessed by the team members, including blood sampling and cannulation, in addition to invasive procedures such as lumber puncture and mechanical ventilation. Regarding pain assessment, most neonates scored less than five during procedure assessment, which meant they only needed some nursing comforting measures. However, nothing was done to handle this pain. There were marked differences in practice among all units. On the other hand, most neonates showed that the post-procedural assessment score was the same as or more than the pre-procedural assessment score. While few showed the opposite in whom interventions were done to reduce the pain. Some neonates were sedated at time of assessment. Nevertheless, physiologic parameters demonstrated that they were distressed during the procedure. There was no relation between the age of neonate and the pain score.