The Pediatric Pain Management Task Force
With the overall guiding vision of 'Fighting Children’s Pain. Together’, the mission of the Pediatric Pain Management Task Force is to deliver quality multi-disciplinary pain management for pediatric patients and their families through inter-professional collaboration using evidence-based practice delivered through patient care, education and leadership. The objectives of the task force are two-fold: firstly, to expand the current adult pain management service provided at HMC to include children; and secondly, to use an inter-disciplinary approach to pediatric pain management using evidence-based practice through implementation of recommendations with support from SickKids pain subject matter experts
One of the specific objectives of the Pain Task Force was to ensure that the current HMC policy is expanded to include pediatric pain assessment. The policy, including pain assessment tools, pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, and ongoing management has been drafted and submitted for approval for use across HMC. The second main objective of the Pain Task Force was to provide inter-disciplinary education and to raise awareness of pediatric pain for HMC staff, as well as patients and families. This was achieved through the Pediatric Pain Awareness Month held in November 2012. The campaign to promote the Pediatric Pain Awareness Month used a marketing strategy that was led by the HMC-SickKids Partnership Project team. Various forms of media were used, including corporate branded posters, internet website announcements, press releases and television interviews, which attracted national public attention to the various aspects of pediatric pain assessment and treatment. Throughout the month of November 2012, education was provided to 242 inter-professional staff members, including 159 nurses, 41 allied health professionals and 42 physicians, who provide care to children at HMC.
This year the Pediatric Pain Awareness Week campaign will continue to support the task force mission toward ‘Fighting Children’s Pain. Together.’ Several strategies will be used to support this, including education and evaluation of change in practice related to pediatric pain assessment and management across HMC clinical units. The national public awareness campaign, in conjunction with ‘Kulluna', will provide education to patients and families to enable recognition of pain and effective use of various methods and tools to be used for distraction and treatment in children.
