Post-Operative Pain and Comfort in Children After Heart Surgery: A Comparison of Nurses and Families Pre-operative Expectations.

Purpose: Parents' and nurses' expectations about pain control and comfort in children after heart surgery were explored to contribute to evidence-based family-centered interventions.

Design And Methods: 20 nurses and 23 parents from a tertiary pediatric center in the Pacific Northwest, were interviewed about their expectations of children's pain control and comfort experience in the hospital after heart surgery. In this descriptive study, data were collected from semi-structured recall interviews and analyzed using content analysis.

Results: Most parents expected their child be medicated at a level of not feeling any pain. Many expected their child to remain in a heavily sedated state after the surgery. A few parents did not know what to expect. In contrast, nurses expected children to have controlled pain with intermittent discomfort, yet, tolerating recovery activities.

Conclusions: Although both parents and nurses expect to partner in the comfort care of the child, there is variation on the expectations around the nurse-parent relationship and the operational definition of pain management and comfort.

Practice Implications: Awareness of parents' expectations about pediatric post-operative comfort present an opportunity for the development of interventions aimed to enhance alignment of nurse and family strategies for children after heart surgery. Pre-operative preparation for families specific to post-operative recovery and pain management of children hospitalized for heart surgery is needed.