Cindy Smith Greenberg

PAIN ASSESSMENT IN INFANTS AND CHILDREN

The science of pain assessment for infants and children has grown substantially in the past several decades to the point that valid and reliable methods for pain assessment are available for use in clinical settings. Accurate pain assessment requires consideration of childrens developmental level, type of pain experienced, history and context of pain, family influences, and interaction with the health care team. Research is needed to improve the sensitivity, specificity, and generalizability of pain-assessment tools and to more fully incorporate contextual factors into the objective assessment process. Finally, the improvement of pain assessment in the clinical setting can be viewed as a patient care quality issue, and continuous quality improvement methods can be used effectively to incorporate pain assessment as an integral component of every infants and childs health care.

Las Vegas here we come… SPN’s 14th annual conference, April 22–24, 2004 1

Las Vegas has been highest on the wish list of places to visit since the very first SPN conference attendees began completing evaluation forms. We finally have Las Vegas, but more importantly, we have the embodiment of the vision that the founders of the Society of Pediatric Nurses have shared with us. At last year’s conference, many of the founding members shared with us their ideas of why SPN got started and how they envision its future. Attendees at the 2003 conference in Kansas City had the opportunity of adding to this vision. This Las Vegas conference is the fruit of those labors.