Open AccessBehavioral Observation of Infants With Life-Threatening or Life-Limiting Illness in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit
Author(s) -
Christine A. Fortney,
Stephanie Sealschott,
Rita H. Pickler
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nursing research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1538-9847
pISSN - 0029-6562
DOI - 10.1097/nnr.0000000000000456
Subject(s) - neonatal intensive care unit , distress , medicine , intensive care , sedation , pain scale , limiting , intensive care unit , pediatrics , emergency medicine , physical therapy , intensive care medicine , clinical psychology , anesthesia , mechanical engineering , engineering
Infants in the neonatal intensive care unit experience aversive stimuli that cause pain and distress. Maintaining adequate relief from pain and distress is challenging because of infants' varying ages and stages of development and their nonverbal status. Thus, pain and distress must be interpreted by a healthcare provider or other proxy from their own observations or perceptions. There is no standard research or clinical measure for pain and distress in infants.