April 4, 2023
OTTAWA – The Health Standards Organization has released a new set of guidelines to help hospital workers manage children’s pain — particularly for those who can’t communicate when they’re hurt.
It’s the first national standard in the world focused on pediatric pain.
Emergency physician and pediatric pain researcher Dr. Samina Ali says for a long time, doctors believed young children’s nervous systems were so underdeveloped they couldn’t feel or remember pain.
“In the mid-’80s, babies were receiving open heart surgery with no anesthesia,” said Ali, who is also a professor of pediatrics and an adjunct professor of emergency medicine at the University of Alberta.