Videotape increases parental knowledge about pediatric pain management

Pediatric pain management often depends on parents recognition and assessme nt of their child's pain and their beliefs as to whether the pain should be treated. Parental misconceptions concerning pain assessment and pain manag ement may therefore result in inadequate pain treatment, particularly in pa tients who are too young or too developmentally handicapped to self-report their pain. We hypothesized that viewing a concise, educational videotape w ould provide parents with instructive information that could correct miscon ceptions concerning pain and pain management in children. To do this, we ev aluated the impact of an educational videotape on parental responses to a q uestionnaire about pediatric pain management. Parents of children scheduled for inpatient, postoperative hospital care were studied. After answering 3 0 questions, parents were randomly assigned to either view (Group 1) or not view (Group 2) a 19-min educational videotape. Immediately after viewing t he videotape (Group 1), or 30 min after taking the first test (Group 2), pa rents were asked to answer the same questionnaire a second time. The effect of seeing the videotape was assessed by comparing post-pre test score diff erences using paired t-test. One-hundred parents were studied. Randomizatio n was effective in assigning equitable groups. Initial scores of percent an swers correct in each group were different ([mean +/- SD] Group 1 [n = 50]: 68.7% +/- 18.8% vs Group 2 [n = 50]: 61.5% +/- 22.7%; P = 0.09). Viewing t he videotape effectively increased test scores: paired t-test within groups demonstrated a significant difference in Group 1 (22.4% +/- 16.5%, P < 0.0 001), whereas Group 2 scores changed to a much lesser degree (2.7% +/- 8.3% , P = 0.0271). All parents who viewed the videotape stated that it was info rmative regarding their understanding of their child's pain management. Thi s study demonstrates the effectiveness of an educational videotape in chang ing parental knowledge concerning postoperative pediatric pain. This effect ive and efficient teaching medium may be useful in improving pain managemen t in postoperative pediatric surgical patients. Implications: Pediatric pai n management often depends on parents recognition and assessment of their c hild's pain and their beliefs as to whether the pain should be treated. Thi s prospective, randomized, controlled study demonstrated the effectiveness of an educational videotape in changing parental knowledge concerning posto perative pediatric pain. This effective and efficient teaching medium may b e useful in preventing inadequate pain management in postoperative pediatri c surgical patients.