מדווח ״10״ אך נראה כמו ״3״: כשמסר הכאב של ילדים מבלבל - מתיאוריה לפרקטיקה: [מאמר מחקר]

Assessment of pain intensity, like other subjective experiences, is a complex task in both adults and children. Children׳s ability to express pain further complicate assessment.Pediatric nurses often find that there are discrepancies between the child׳s verbal reports regarding the intensity of their pain and the child׳s behavior, so the message they receive is of low clarity. For example, a child may complain on pain intensity of 10,but might behave in a non-painful manner. According to several theoretical models, the message clarity is a significant variable that affects the nurse׳s confidence in assessing pain. Over the years, several factors have been identified that contribute to uncertainty in the context of pain assessment. These factors can be divided into patient-related factors, nurse-related factors, and situational factors.Among the factors related to the child, emotional and cognitive components such as anxiety or catastrophizing, as well as lack of ability to understand and use pain scales were identified as central components in shaping the pain message clarity. Among the factors related to the caregiver, personality characteristics such as empathy, work seniority, and first impression also affect nurse׳ certainty. Finally, situational factors,such as workload also interfere with nurse׳s certainty regarding patients׳ pain intensity.Despite the importance of child pain message clarity emerging from these models׳,empirical findings supporting the validity of these models have not yet been collected.In a current research we examine the validity of the updated models revolving symptom clarity and certainty. The findings of this study could assist with generation of guidelines for best practice in cases in which the child pain reports conflict with pain behavior.