This document summarizes a learning experience about assessing pain in pediatric patients. The learner attended a class that covered pain scales for different developmental levels, how to assess and document pain, and administering analgesics. This helped the learner understand how to identify and address pain in infants and children who may not be able to verbally communicate their pain levels. The learner rated their proficiency as "fair" since they have not applied these skills in practice yet but understand the concepts. They plan to use this knowledge to properly assess and care for pediatric patients experiencing pain.
This document summarizes a learning experience about assessing pain in pediatric patients. The learner attended a class that covered pain scales for different developmental levels, how to assess and document pain, and administering analgesics. This helped the learner understand how to identify and address pain in infants and children who may not be able to verbally communicate their pain levels. The learner rated their proficiency as "fair" since they have not applied these skills in practice yet but understand the concepts. They plan to use this knowledge to properly assess and care for pediatric patients experiencing pain.
This document summarizes a learning experience about assessing pain in pediatric patients. The learner attended a class that covered pain scales for different developmental levels, how to assess and document pain, and administering analgesics. This helped the learner understand how to identify and address pain in infants and children who may not be able to verbally communicate their pain levels. The learner rated their proficiency as "fair" since they have not applied these skills in practice yet but understand the concepts. They plan to use this knowledge to properly assess and care for pediatric patients experiencing pain.
Category: L - Pediatrics Competency number, letter and subcategory
Subcategory: L-3-1 - Demonstrate knowledge and ability to assess
pediatric client for pain considering: age, behaviors, cultural influence, location and intensity, physiological and psychological factors, previous medication and effectiveness & subjective and objective data
A learning experience in NFDN 2005 that focuses on this competency
is attending class and being taught a unit that focused on the topic of pain specifically. In the class for unit 2.5 I learned about pain scales for the different developmental levels for pediatric clients, how to assess pain on a pediatric client, when it is alright to administer A learning experience narcotics and/or various pharmacologic treatments (such as acetaminophen) and at what age a child can be on a PCA pump. We in this course and also learned how to chart pain for a pediatric client and how to example related to monitor the effects of analgesics. This relates to the competency this competency because this category focuses on all the points I mentioned above as well as different cultural influences on how pain is handled and expressed. The youngest to the oldest people in this world experience pain. Infants and young children may not remember the painful experience but the body does so it is important to monitor and manage pain at any sign or symptom.
Description of what I learned and how it relates to this competency. Why was it meaningful?
I feel this learning experience was important because depending on
the age of the client pain may be very hard to asses. An example of this is that babies pain is measured by their mood, facial expressions and behavior (FLACC scale) however, these can all easily be affected by daily activities, when they were last fed and so on so their nurse has to be very keen on their usual activity and mood to not mistake it for pain. In children pain complaints are usually generalized and they often have referred pain (example pneumonia can cause abdominal pain because viruses go through the gastrointestinal and respiratory tracts) which can lead to misdiagnoses and thus they receive ineffective treatments. Being aware of the expression of pain among various life stages will make me more aware of children that are in pain and what needs to be addressed and why to keep them as comfortable as possible.
PROFESSIONAL PORTFOLIO CONTINUATION
Use the proficiency
categories to rate my proficiency in this competency. Explanation of how I achieved this number
How I will use this
knowledge and experience will be used in current and future nursing practices
I believe I would rate myself in the fair category because I
understand all these concepts and why they are part of the pain assessment but I have never used them in a real care setting and believe I would need a refresher and/or notes to make sure I complete all the components of a pain assessment as well as different referred pain symptoms and strategies to minimize pain in babies and young children who may not talk and express their pain verbally (except for possible crying). In current nursing practices I will use this knowledge and learning experiences to identify possible pain in various pediatric clients and to assess their pain based on their developmental level and abilities. I will give them all the care they need to minimize pain and maintain comfort even if they may not have the ability to talk or point out their amount of pain. In future nursing practices I will adapt to any new changes that come into the scope of LPNs for assessing and caring for pediatric clients who are experiencing and/or expressing pain. I will also be familiar with all the concepts of a pain assessment for the various developmental levels of pediatric clients without missing any components.