The Health Standards Organization has released a new set of guidelines to help hospital workers manage children’s pain—particularly for those who can’t communicate when they’re hurt.
It’s the first national standard in the world focused on pediatric pain.
Emergency physician and pediatric pain researcher Dr. Samina Ali says for a long time, doctors believed young children’s nervous systems were so underdeveloped they couldn’t feel or remember pain.
Now it’s clear their bodies not only remembers the trauma, and that pain can severely impact their development in the long term.
The new standards lay how to stay on top of pain management for young patients, including mandating incident reports when a patient experiences preventable, untreated and unmanaged pain….