The effects of two non-pharmacologic pain management methods for intramuscular injection pain in children

SummaryPurposeTo study the effect of local cold therapy and distraction in pain relief using penicillin intramuscular injection in children.MethodsIn this work, 90 children with ages from 5 to 12 who had penicillin injection intramuscularly in a health centre were studied. The samples were chosen randomly and divided into three groups: the first group received local cold therapy, the second group received distraction and the third group (the control group) received routine care. The data were collected through interview and questionnaire. Oucher scale was used to measure pain intensity. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the findings.ResultsAverage pain intensity in local cold therapy, distraction, and control groups was 26.3, 34.3, and 83.3, respectively.The findings indicate that pain intensity was significantly higher in the control group than the experimental groups. Also, pain intensity among children was inversely proportional to their age.ConclusionThis study supports the efficacy of non-pharmacologic pain management methods in children. Nurses are recommended to use local cold therapy and distraction to decrease pain intensity of penicillin intramuscular injection in 5–12-year-old children.