Valorizar a dor na criança: uma reflexão voltada para a praxis

Introduction: Pain, in Portugal, was considered the 5th vital sign in 2003, therefore the measurement, registry and implementation of proper measures to minimize it became of great importance. However, being a subjective phenomenon, it is hard to measure. Those nurses who take care of pediatric patients are faced with an added challenge on pain assesment. Goal: To describe how Nurses value pain in children under their care; to compare their approach with the Guidelines of Good Practice on Pain (GGP) of the Portuguese Order of Nurses. Material and Methods: Forty-one nurses of pediatric clinical practice were questioned on the meaning of pain valorization on children. It was made a qualitative analysis of the answers classifying them according to Text Units (TU). Results: From the data treatment of the 41 questionnaires there resulted four categories of TU: the fifth Vital Sign (12 TU), Professional Demand (26 TU), Recognition and Personal Care (6 TU) and Practicing Excellence (18 TU), which are in conformity with the GGP of the Portuguese Order of Nurses. Conclusions: We have concluded that to value pain in children as the Fifth Vital Sign is a Professional Demand, which Recognizes the child as a person to whom we are rendering a Personalized Care, so that the provided care leads to the Way to Excellence.