A study to assess the effectiveness of facilitated tucking in reducing the pain responses during painful procedures among neonates of NICU and postnatal wards in the selected hospital at Mangalore

Background: The neonatal period is recognized as a brief, critical time that requires focused interventions. Neonates routinely undergo painful invasive procedures even after uncomplicated birth. Treating procedural pain has become a crucial part of neonatal care. In the past it was believed that neonates do not feel pain because of incomplete myelination of peripheral nerves. This is no longer believed to be true, because myelination is not necessary for pain perception. Hence Pain among neonates is often underestimated and untreated, producing untoward consequences. In one word assessment of pain in babies is a persistent, unresolved problem that has serious implications for effective management. Objectives: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of facilitated tucking in terms of variations in physiological and behavioural responses by comparing experimental and control group. Method: The data was collected from 50 neonates (experimental =25, control =25) of Srinivas hospital, Mukka. Experimental group neonates underwent routine procedure with facilitated tucking and control group neonates underwent routine procedure without facilitated tucking. Result: The mean NIPS score following the routine procedure with facilitated tucking was 1.60 with a standard error of 0.245 and the same following the routine procedure without facilitated tucking was 5.12 with a standard error of 0.279 The NIPS scores of these two procedures were compared by using unpaired t-test, which revealed that there is a statistically significant difference in NIPS score (mean difference 3.520) between them. The result also showed that there is no significant association between the physiological and behavioural changes with demographic variables. Conclusion: In conclusion, Facilitated tucking is an effective non-pharmacological measure to reduce procedural pain in neonates demonstrated by significantly lower NIPS scores.