Parental Attitudes to children's pain and analgesic drugs Version 1

• Research type

  Research Study

• Full title

  Parental Attitudes to children's pain and analgesic drugs

• IRAS ID

  142548

• Contact name

  Lynda Roderique

• Contact email

  l.roderique@sgul.kingston.ac.uk

• Sponsor organisation

  St Georges University of London

• Research summary

  There is very little known about parental attitudes to children’s pain and analgesic drugs in the UK, the aim of this research is to explore parental attitudes to children’s pain and analgesic drugs in the UK specifically the South East of England. Questionnaire will be used to obtain quantitative data from questionnaires parents.
  The results of the research will provide the basis for the provision of targeted post-operative information for parents to ensure a child does not experience severe pain at home.
  In 2003 The Department of Health recommended 75% of elective surgery in children should to be performed in the day case setting (Department of Health, 2003). Operations in children that can be performed in a day surgery setting include tonsillectomies, hernia repairs, and squint repairs which would previously require an overnight stay. This research will be carried out on a 12 bedded Paediatric Day Unit within a Paediatric department in a District General Hospital. The increase in day case surgery means the majority of a child’s post-operative care is carried out at home by the parents and this includes the responsibility for their child’s post-operative pain management. Pervious research has shown unrelieved pain has both physical and psychological long-term effects and post-operative pain is not always managed adequately at home. There appear to be several reasons for this including parental assessment of their child’s pain and the amount of analgesia given. There is currently no published research looking at this area in the UK. Research undertaken to date into parental attitudes to children’s pain and pain medications has been carried out in the USA, Canada and the Netherlands.

  Reference

  Department of Health (2003) Getting the right start: National Service Framework for
  Children Standard of hospital services Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-service-framework-children-young-people-and-maternity-services

• REC name

  East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee

• REC reference

  14/EE/1065

• Date of REC Opinion

  26 Aug 2014

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion