Pediatric Pain
Opioids and Pain in Youth: A toolkit for health professionals
Co-created by SKIP and its partners, this toolkit summarizes current evidence and resources for safe, effective, and equitable opioid use in managing moderate to severe acute and chronic pain in youth. The information and resources in this toolkit can be integrated into clinical practice, support clinical education, and be used to inform organizational policies.
Upcoming Meeting(s):
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Unlocking the Potential of Pain Experiences: A Child Life Specialist Perspective
July 25th, 2024 | 2pm ET
Presenters: Tracy Akitt, Sandy Baggott, Emily Synnott
Growing up can be painful – from first vaccines to scraped knees to losing a tooth. Pain in childhood is inevitable, but fear and anxiety around painful experiences doesn’t have to be. The child life profession has a rich history of providing comfort measures for children in hospital and within the community to decrease fears and maximize coping during painful experiences. Over the years, the importance of these non-pharmacological pain management techniques to reduce medical trauma and create emotional safety are becoming more widely understood and accepted as best practice. A childhood that includes effective preparation and support for potentially adverse but necessary experiences sets the stage for optimal development, resilience, and a lifetime of healthy coping. Explore the methods used by child life specialists to better understand the pain experiences of children and support families in building the foundation for positive healthcare experiences.
Register: To join the Pediatric Pain Network and attend this meeting, please fill out this short survey. You will then receive an email with the Zoom link for upcoming Network meetings.
Pediatric Pain Management Practice and Policy Network
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.
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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. |
Meet the Network Co-Chairs:
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.
Resources
Past Meetings
June 22, 2023
The first meeting 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.
Watch the recording
Podcast
Children's Pain Management: A new standard to improve careListen to Dr. Katie Birnie discuss pediatric pain management, focusing on the newly developed National Pediatric Pain Management Standard, the first of its kind in the world.
Tune In
October 26, 2023
The Pediatric Pain Management Practice and Policy Network welcomed Meredith Trant from ChildKind International to present The ChildKind Initiative.
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.
