Pediatric Pain Management

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EMSC grantees and pediatric researchers work hard to increase health professionals' knowledge and recognition of the characteristic indications of pain in children, as well as the immediate and long-term consequences for children when pain is unrecognized and untreated. We applaud the men and women who strive to understand, assess, and relieve children's pain in the prehospital and in the emergency department setting.

Resources On the Web

University of Michigan Health System (not a U.S. government website). This website covers pediatric pain management including dispelling common myths, basic concepts, pain assessment, pain scales, documentation, classification of pain by inferred pathology, common side effects from opioids, and non-pharmacological approaches to pain.

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Example Practices: Model Programs in Facility Categorization

The Pain and Palliative Care Program (not a U.S. government website) at Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota is a model for multidisciplinary inpatient, home and hospice care for children in acute and chronic pain and for children with life-limiting conditions. The multidisciplinary team includes the child’s physician, family, specially trained physicians, nurses, social workers, child life specialists, chaplains, and volunteers. Everyone works together in the hospital or at home in an effort to relieve the suffering of the child and family. There are many parts of this program including the Inpatient Pain and Palliative Care Team, Pain Clinic, Home-based Palliative Care, Home-based Hospice Care, Perinatal Hospice Program, and Education and Outreach.

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Database Searches

The Assessment and Management of Acute Pain in Infants, Children, and Adolescents Pediatrics, 2001; 108: 793-797. (Not a U.S. government website)

EMSC National Resource Center Database of Grant Products & Other Resources Click to search

National Library of Medicine PubMed journal article database Click to search PubMed.

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Family & Caregiver Resources

Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital Pediatric Pain Coloring Book (not a U.S. government website). “Color Me Pain Free” is a 28-page coloring and activity book intended to help ease children’s anxiety prior to scheduled medical exams. In the book, Peter learns about medical methods of pain prevention used during his spinal tap, as well as ways he can use his own imagination to direct his attention away from the procedure. Patty learns what to expect in the way of pain, scary equipment and noises when she goes to have an MRI.

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