RESEARCH IN NURSING AND PICOT QUESTION

The selected PICOT questions

Among the hospitalized children (P), how does the Wong-Baker pain evaluation rating scale (I) compare to the child medical fear scale (C), and how it assesses the pain levels felt by a child (O) in a week(t)?

The literature search results

The study by Renolen et al. (2019) is related to this PICOT question since it discusses the populations addressed, including the hospitalized kids due to prolonged pain. Additionally, the sample applied in the research included children undergoing high pain levels with a healthcare facility. The study also used children aged between seven- and twelve-years experiencing pain within a rural healthcare facility. All the sample children were to undergo a Wong-baker scale (WBS); additionally, a twenty-six items CMFS "child medical fear scale" was used in comparing outcomes within the experiment. Finally, exploratory and spearman's analysis methods were used in measuring and evaluating the overall scores on the correlation. The total number of children involved in the study was two hundred and underwent the CMFS and WBS. These methods were essential since children are more fragile and cannot manage their pain like adults within a healthcare facility. Additionally, in a societal setting, kids have a higher possibility of exposure to physical harm.

Secondly, the article by Renolen et al. (2019) intended to review the evidence-based process, especially in the pain management processes within healthcare facilities. The participants used two major remedies, especially as a measurement to control children under pain within healthcare centers. Therefore, the results of this study are essential, especially for the healthcare practitioners, to understand the relevant practices and procedures that should be developed, especially for children under their care. Additionally, this research is essential for giving a plan and ideas related to identifying and assessing pain among children under healthcare. The article has also mentioned some essential effects and consequences of pain among the young population. Finally, the research is essential to the Evident-based practice since it gives methods, information, and procedures used in pain management in healthcare facilities.

The research by Melnyk et al. (2015) uses a Wong-Baker scale to determine whether fear affects the pain reporting process. The author hypothesized that the Wong-Baker scale of pain evaluation only related to the different pain severity scales; therefore, pain is not linked to the fear measurement among children in most instances. However, it often becomes difficult for the physician to evaluate how fear makes it complicated to understand the pain magnitude. Therefore, the authors demonstrate through the Wong-Baker scale that there is pain measurement when dealing with acute pain, although it fails to evaluate how much the fear of pain among children sways their feelings of fear.

The research by Ackley et al. (2015) since a child medical fear scale is applied in understanding the relationship between fear and pain intensity or magnitude. However, the medical fear scale is not appropriate in pain assessment since it considers fear to be the result of pain. However, it's essential to understand other things that can cause fear, such as PTSD, and not pain. Therefore, this proves that the fear measurement scale does not provide the right conditions of the child in accordance with pain felt during the acute illnesses. Additionally, the research was based on the children feeling fear from the healthcare attendants but failed to focus on the hurt-scale method to assess pain from another perspective apart from fear.

The research establishing the relationship between pain and anxiety. The authors wanted to get the physiological response among adolescent patients by understanding their pulse rates and oxygen saturation in determining the anxiety levels. However, this research could only be helpful for children with serious incidents of polypectomy problems. However, it's also not possible to gauge the pain felt by patients by understanding their anxiety since everyone is anxious about whether they will recover from the pain. However, the research is still applicable in understanding whether relatively high anxiety increases the pain within a healthcare setting or not.

The best article

Based on the four reviewed articles, we establish that the most relevant article that deeply elaborates the pain management issue among hospitalized children is by Linsley et al. (2019). The overall results from the authors have been based on the period that the children stayed within the healthcare centers while undertaking treatment processes. The authors also noted that some body regions were more painful than others, including the neck, lower back, and shoulder regions. However, the authors established that this could have been caused by a relatively higher concentration of musculoskeletal pains related to individual factors and occupation. Other factors that increased the pain for children included improper movements and laying postures within the healthcare facilities. Linsley et al. (2019) further established that behavioral and personality factors had a relatively higher effect on an individual feeling pain among the children. Finally, the authors explained that pain among children could be caused by the increased demands related to musculoskeletal pains on strategic parts of the body. However, the lower and upper body pains could be solved through stress management and reflex actions among the children.

This article has also been important to my PICOT study since it has introduced the PSS condition "postural pain syndrome," which is a condition that often arises from the body stress or aches that occurs when a patient remains in a single and wrong position over a relatively long period. Therefore, health workers should always check the current patient's laying position to ensure that it will not lead to PPS. However, the pain experienced can be relieved by engagement in physical activities. However, the muscle's flexibility functional strength does not cause any impairments in the patient.

Furthermore, we should understand that sixty percent of patients who remain in a single sitting position for over four hours risks developing an LBP "lower back pain. This can be compared to the thirty-five percent of the patients that remain in a single position for two hours. However, these timing limits should be restricted to only patients hospitalized for two weeks. Therefore, the research helped determine how pain should be addressed in patients, including engagement in physical activities, proper sleep, movement, etc.; however, we should note that this study ignored crucial factors noted in the other research like how stress, personalities, and anxiety is related to increased pain among patients and only focused on the pain resulting from a single sitting position for a prolonged period. Linsley et al. (2019).

Conclusion

In conclusion, healthcare workers' evidence-based practice ensures that pain among hospitalized children is reduced gradually. Through the reviewed studies, we have understood the application of the Wong-baker pain management scale in the evaluation and measurement of pain among children within healthcare facilities. Therefore, most children's caregivers and patients use this scale to determine the magnitude of pain being felt by their children. However, we should understand that pain cannot be determined by anxiety and fear scales within a healthcare facility. Therefore, this study has helped us to understand how HealthCare workers can help patients manage pain through exercises, proper sitting posture, and movements.

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