Pain Management

Intensive Care of infants often involves invasive procedures which can be painful and otherwise stressful for the infant. Procedures such as IV placement, blood draws for laboratory tests, intubation for mechanical ventilation, and surgery are frequently necessary for proper care of the infant, but they are also potentially painful experiences. In the NICU at Kaiser Medical Center-Santa Clara, we adhere to the center-wide standard that "Patients can expect their pain to be managed within their comfort zone." Nurses assess each infant's comfort level at least every 8 hours and before and after potentially painful procedures using the "Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP)," a clinically validated scoring method, and physicians are alerted if nurses feel the infant needs medication for pain or anxiety. Because pain medications can have adverse "side" effects, steps are taken to control infants' discomfort for minor procedures such as heel-sticks or IV placement with non-pharmacologic techniques such as swaddling and/or pacifier use (sometimes with administration of sucrose (sugar) solution). Pain medications, sedatives, and anesthesia are used when the procedure is expected to be more painful, such as for surgical procedures, circumcisions, chest tube placements, etc. We encourage parents to let our team know if they feel their child's pain is not being managed effectively. A handout covering our pain-management policy is included in the packet given to parents upon admission of their infant to our NICU.

Disclaimer
If you think you have a MEDICAL OR PSYCHIATRIC EMERGENCY, CALL 911 IMMEDIATELY or go to the nearest hospital. DO NOT attempt to access emergency care through this web site. An emergency medical condition is a medical or psychiatric condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain) such that you could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in any of the following: serious jeopardy to your health, serious impairment to your bodily functions, or serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part. An emergency medical condition is also "active labor," which means a labor when there is inadequate time for safe transfer to a Plan hospital (or designated hospital) before delivery or if a transfer poses a threat to the health of the member or unborn child.

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