Neonatal pain
Changing Policy and Practice
Many babies born prematurely or unwell spend their first weeks of life in neonatal care, where they are exposed to frequent clinical procedures which can have long-term impacts on their development. However, pain monitoring is not always consistent.
Painful procedures vary widely in how invasive they are so may contribute differently to the overall pain experienced by each baby.
Dr Lorenzo Fabrizi will use our Changing Policy and Practice funding to disseminate a procedural pain severity scale to influence the way pain from clinical procedures in the neonatal intensive care unit is monitored and managed for babies.
This scale is based on objective measurement of babies' responses to procedures.
The team will distribute posters and videos of the scale through a network of local pain champions to 15 neonatal operational delivery networks and parental advisory groups across the country.
This program will provide a new way of measuring an individual baby’s pain burden. It has the potential to change the way pain from clinical procedures is monitored and managed for vulnerable babies.