Non‐nutritive sucking relieves pain for preterm infants during heel stick procedures in Taiwan

Jen‐Jiuan Liaw, Luke Yang, Yin Ti, Susan Tucker Blackburn, Yue‐Cune Chang and Liang‐Wen Sun

Journal of Clinical Nursing, 2010, vol. 19, issue 19‐20, 2741-2751

Abstract: Aims. This study examined the effectiveness of non‐nutritive sucking on preterm infant pain, changes in infant behaviour and frequency of abnormal physiological signals during heel stick procedures in Taiwan. Background. Preterm infants’ repetitive exposure to painful procedures may result in changes to brain organisation. Pain management should be a priority in neonatal care. Design. Randomised control trial. Methods. Preterm infants (gestational age 28·9–37 weeks) were randomised to two groups: those receiving (experimental, n = 52) or not receiving non‐nutritive sucking (control, n = 52) during heel stick procedures. Pain was measured before (for three minutes), during and after (during 10‐minute recovery) heel stick procedures by the Premature Infant Pain Profile, changes in infant behaviour and abnormal physiological parameters. Results. Infants in both groups had similar odds ratios for pain and moderate‐to‐severe pain (0·57 and 0·58, respectively), after adjusting for time effects, postconceptional age, heel stick duration, painful experiences and baseline Premature Infant Pain Profile score. The pain scores of infants with non‐nutritive sucking were significantly lower than those of non‐nutritive sucking infants at all eight phases of the heel stick procedures. Infants undergoing heel stick procedures in the experimental group had lower rates ratios for ‘grimace’ and ‘hand to mouth or face’ behaviours than control infants (0·73 and 0·78, respectively). Conclusion. Non‐nutritive sucking effectively reduced pain, particularly mild to moderate pain and behavioural responses to pain in infants receiving heel stick procedures, suggesting that nurses can offer this intervention to relieve pain in preterm infants undergoing invasive procedures. Relevance to clinical practice. Infants should be given an appropriate‐sized pacifier for comfort during painful procedures. Nurses need to be informed about the effectiveness of non‐nutritive sucking, its analgesic mechanisms and how to use and incorporate it into practice.

Date: 2010
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2702.2010.03300.x

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jocnur:v:19:y:2010:i:19-20:p:2741-2751

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Clinical Nursing from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().