What do Neonatal Nurses Know and Feel About Pain Management During Retinopathy of Prematurity Examination: A Qualitative Research

Aim: The purpose of this study was todetermine feelings, pain-related knowledge, and pain management-relatedpractices of neonatal intensive care nurses during the retinopathy ofprematurity examination.

Method: The descriptive qualitativeresearch design was used. In the study, the individual in-depth interviews wereconducted with nurses by using the interview form with semi-structuredopen-ended questions. The data were evaluated by using the MAXQDA12.

Results: Two main themes were formed as“neonatal pain” and “retinopathy of prematurity examination” in line with thethematic analysis. In the study, it was determined that the nurses were able tolimitedly identify the pain-induced physiological and behavioral symptoms innewborns, could not evaluate the symptoms and levels of pain by using painscales with proven validity and reliability. The results indicated that thenurses provided the care based on their observations rather than evidence-basedknowledge in the pain management.

Conclusion: Nurses should be informedthrough evidence-based training programs and supported to transfer the acquiredknowledge into practice. And the results emphasizes that the subject of painand pain management should be inserted in nursing education cirruculum.

Cite this article as: Metreş, Ö.,Aykanat-Girgin, B. and Gözen, D. (2019). What do neonatal nurses know and feelabout pain management during retinopathy of prematurity examination: Aqualitative research. FNJN Florence Nightingale Journal of Nursing, 27(2):133-142.