Pediatric Pain
Children's Healthcare Canada and it's members have been working nationally over many years in pursuit of solutions to shared issues with the research gap in children's pain assessment, treatment and management. Over the past several years we have focused on nurturing new knowledge, stimulating innovation, sharing research and information, building on the expertise in the Canadian child health community.
Children's Healthcare Canada is a Co-Director of Solutions for Kids in Pain, a national knowledge mobilization network who aim to improve children's pain management by mobilizing evidence-based solutions through coordination and collaboration.
Virtually all children experience pain through commonly performed procedures (e.g., vaccination, blood tests, and laceration repair) within the healthcare system. These procedures occur at all levels of care (e.g., doctors’ office, clinics, hospitals, homecare settings), and are performed by a wide variety of health care professionals (e.g., nurses, doctors, paramedics, parents). Although there has been a significant amount of research in the area of improving pain treatment for children, there is evidence to suggest that interventions for painful procedures are not being used. Children’s pain remains undertreated in the Canadian healthcare system, and worldwide.
Proven and safe therapies are currently underutilized for routine minor, yet painful, procedures. Every health care facility caring for children should implement an effective pain prevention program that includes strategies for the following: routinely assessing pain; minimizing the number of painful procedures performed; effectively using pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies for the prevention of pain associated with routine minor procedures; and eliminating pain associated with surgery and other major procedures.
Pediatric Pain Management Practice and Policy Network
The Pain Practice Network will provide a national forum for the child health community to convene to:
- Share information on current pain management processes.
- Collaborate on knowledge mobilization and project planning.
- Build awareness and uptake of the Health Standards Organization (HSO) Pediatric Pain Management Standard.
- Create and foster relationships between network members and Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP) Knowledge Brokers (KBs) to facilitate national knowledge mobilization and alignment.
- Participate as Subject Matter Experts to rebrand, refresh and update the Pediatric Pain Management Toolkit.
We need you!
- People who have experience with kids’ pain: Health care providers, senior leaders, family and patient partners, child life specialists, researchers, nurse educators, clinical managers, policy makers, etc.
- Network members must be an employee, physician, or family/patient from a Children’s Healthcare Canada member organization.
Why?
Children’s healthcare organizations need support in their commitment to equitable, effective, and people-centered pediatric pain management. This new network will convene leaders and subject matter experts to augment impact in children’s pain management across Canada.
Meetings
The first meeting was held June 22, 2023 and included guest speaker Dr. Katie Birnie, PhD, RPsych, Solution for Kids in Pain's (SKIP) Associate Scientific Director who presented a summary on Canada's first National Pediatric Pain Management Standard.
Procedural pain management in children & youth: A toolkit for health professionals
The purpose of this toolkit is to guide health professionals in integrating evidence-based solutions for procedural pain assessment and management in children and youth. The information and resources contained in this toolkit can be integrated into clinical practice, to support clinical education, and inform organizational policies.
For more information please contact Catherine Riddell, Manager, Health Networks at Children's Healthcare Canada
