International Journal of Nursing Education and Research

Perception of pain in pediatrics is complex, and entails physiological, psychological, behavioural, and developmental factors. However, in spite of its frequency, pain in infants, children and adolescents are often underestimated and under treated. It has also been shown that infants and children, who experience pain in early life, show long-term changes in terms of pain perception and related behaviour. Professionals in health care settings have a responsibility to reduce pain and anxiety as much as possible to increase patient safety.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of topical anaesthetic on venipuncture pain in children who undergo these procedures repeatedly during the course of their treatment.

A quantitative research approach, quasi experimental in which post-test only control group design without randomization was used to conduct this research study. A sample of 80 children as subjects (40experiment and 40-control) who required venipuncture for any diagnostic and therapeutic purpose in selected hospitals of Punjab was selected using Non probability convenience sampling technique.

The study results depicted that mean pain score (1.1±1.19) in experimental group was statistically significantly different then mean pain score (5.25±2.26) in control group. While comparing the level of pain, it was calculated using chi-square test, it was interpreted that there is statistically significant difference in the level of pain in experimental and control group at 0.05 level of significance.

The study concluded that the topical anaesthetic cream was effective to reducing the pain during venipuncture among the children in experimental group than control group in selected hospitals of Punjab.