Non-pharmacological pain relief interventions in use in vaccination of non-pharmacological infants pain relief interventions used in infant vaccination

Abstract

Background: Administration of injectable vaccines is the most common cause of iatrogenic pain in childhood (Shah et al., 2009). Treatment of pain in immunization reduces discomfort and improves child / family satisfaction (Taddio et al., 2009). Breastfeeding is an effective non-pharmacological intervention to prevent the pain of vaccinated children (Tansky and Lindberg, 2010). Objectives: To know the non-pharmacological pain-reduction interventions used by nurses in the vaccination of infants and to identify whether, when they vaccinate breastfed children, they use breastfeeding as a sensorial and cognitive-behavioral intervention to reduce pain. Participants and Methods: Descriptive / exploratory study according to the qualitative methodology of 17 Primary Care Nurses attending Postgraduate Courses / Masters in a Nursing School. Data were collected by semi-structured interview, May / June / 2012 after approval of the Ethics Committee. The sample of 12 participants was intentional. The inclusion criteria were based on being Primary Care Nurses and vaccinating infants. In the treatment of information we used the content analysis of Laurence Bardin (Bardin, 2008). Results: Different non pharmacological strategies of pain relief during vaccination, alone or in combination, are used. Two non-pharmacological strategies emerged: comfort measures and technical aspects. When nurses vaccinate breastfed children, breastfeeding during vaccination occurs if requested by mothers. There were nurses who used it before or after vaccination but stopped at vaccination. Some nurses do not adopt it for fear of choking or other consequences and are unaware of services where they use it. Conclusions: Nurses are awake to the use of non-pharmacological pain reduction strategies in vaccination. However, in breastfed children in general, they do not use breastfeeding. There is a need for training on breastfeeding in view of the effectiveness in reducing pain during vaccination.