Nationwide Cross‐Sectional Online Survey of Australian Clinicians' Pain Management Practices for Newborns During Heel Lance Procedures

ABSTRACTThe analgesic effects of breastfeeding (BF), skin‐to‐skin care (SSC), and oral sucrose/glucose for neonates during painful procedures are well‐established. Although parents report wanting to comfort their babies during painful procedures, use of these strategies is inconsistent. This study investigated clinicians' support/use of BF, SSC and sucrose during newborn heel lance in Australia and perceptions of a clinician‐targeted video demonstrating how to perform heel lance while newborns were BF/SSC. A cross‐sectional online survey was conducted. Snowball sampling and distribution via partner organizations were used. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used for quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Respondents included 729 nurses, midwives, and phlebotomists, caring for healthy newborns (39%, n = 283); sick newborns (41% n = 300) and both sick and healthy newborns (20%, n = 146). Most respondents caring for healthy newborns were “very likely” to support BF (80%, n = 199) and SSC (65%, n = 162). Most (89%, n = 237) caring for sick newborns were “very likely” to use sucrose; one third “very likely” to support mothers to BF (29%, n = 78) and 32% (n = 85) to use SSC. Barriers to BF and SSC included parents being absent and critically ill newborns. Most considered the video applicable (81%, n = 488) and likely to increase BF or SSC (84%, n = 502). Analysis from comment data identified two categories: “healthcare context and practice” and “parent and baby.” The key findings that clinicians reported the video to be highly useful and that BF and SSC during heel lance for healthy newborns was high confirm that further research is needed to examine parents' use of BF and SSC during painful procedures.