How Well Ethiopian Parents Assess and Manage Their Children's Postoperative Pain: Descriptive Correlational Study

Introduction: Acute postoperative pain in children is common. Although mothers care for their children's pain in most cases, it has been noted that mothers have limited knowledge about pain assessment and management of children.

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the practice of parents towards evaluating and managing postoperative children's pain.

Method: This descriptive correlational study was conducted among 102 parents with children aged between 2 and 12 undergoing elective surgical procedures. Parental use of pain relief strategies (PURPS) and parental postoperative pain management (PPPM) tools were used to collect data on the adequacy of knowledge of using different pain relief strategies and the skill of parental pain assessment, respectively. Investigators used Spearman's rank correlation coefficient to determine the relationships between pain scores given by parents and nurses. The statistical tests were performed at a 95% confidence interval and a 5% significance level.

Inclusion criteria

• Parents whose children are receiving elective surgical procedures
• age between the ages of two and twelve in year
• The legal parents' fluency in the local language in speaking, writing, and reading,
• lack of a diagnosis of any visual, auditory, sensory, or other illness

Exclusion criteria

Children with

• ASA classifications III or IV,
• significant developmental delays,
• chronic illnesses
• premature births,
• underlying chronic pain conditions (e.g., diabetes)
• a medical history of multiple painful experiences (e.g., malignancies)