Neonatal pain

When newborn babies experience pain, this can adversely affect their brain development. Unfortunately, unwell babies need to undergo frequent painful procedures, like blood tests or the placement of gastric feeding tubes, and so clinicians must prioritise effective pain alleviation. Through clear communication between staff and patients, pain management for babies could be improved significantly, helping to reduce long-term adverse effects.

In 2020, Dr Lorenzo Fabrizi and his research group at UCL/UCLH developed an easy-to-use information tool, displaying an evidence-based severity ranking of 16 medical procedures, with parent-friendly pain management interventions. Funded by the Foundation, the pain severity scale aims to better educate staff and parents so they can work together to minimise a baby's painful experience.

The pain scale has so far been introduced nationwide to 15 neonatal teams, expanding to a network of 80 pain champions. The tool has earned endorsements from key organisations, such as the Neonatal Nursing Association. Our next step is to widen access to our communication tool, to healthcare professionals in postnatal wards, and to families that may be at a disadvantage as they cannot speak or read English.

Dr Fabrizi's team hope to achieve their goals by supporting and expanding the neonatal pain champions’ network to parents through regular meetings, webinars, and knowledge cafes - leveraging UCLH and Neonatal Nursing Association communication channels. They will also seek the support of the network to reach parents who could help translate the tool into the ten most common languages in the UK, ensuring it can resonate with harder-to-reach populations. Translated materials will include videos, infographics, and guides - distributed online and through professional networks.

This will serve the group's long-term objectives of strengthening staff-parent collaboration in managing neonatal pain and standardising procedural pain monitoring across the UK.