The pivotal role of parents in pain care: Improving how we care for children’s pain

The inaugural lecture of Professor Joan Simons, Head of School for Health, Wellbeing and Social Care in the OU’s Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies, will focus on how her experience as a burns nurse instigated a career long interest on improving the management of children’s pain in hospital.

Abstract

This inaugural lecture is based on Professor Simons's recent research, which looks at how we improve how we care for children's pain.

Professor Simons has worked for 30 years to improve the management of children's pain.

Her doctoral thesis in 2000 highlighted the poor communication between nurses and parents in relation to a child’s pain, reporting on high levels of pain experienced by children in hospital. Numerous studies at the time reported similar findings of children experiencing unnecessary pain in hospital.

To change the focus of her work, Professor Simons used a funded Travel Scholarship as an opportunity to reframe her approach to researching children’s pain, spending time in children’s hospitals in Liverpool, Sweden and Australia. She interviewed practitioners on their views on how to effectively manage children’s pain, using an appreciative inquiry approach, identifying what works and gleaning from practitioners what is involved in managing children's pain effectively.

A key finding from the Travel Scholarship was that when parents are empowered to be involved in their child’s pain, their child’s pain management improves. This finding has influenced Professor Simons’s approach to her work since, which has involved designing a framework for the effective management of children’s pain in hospital.

Subsequent studies involving pain specialists, parents and children and young people, have provided insight into the barriers encountered by parents and nurses in involving parents in the management of their child’s pain in hospital. The findings have been drawn together to identify a way forward to improve the management of children's pain by providing insights and support to both nurses and parents.

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