This descriptive study from a qualitative approach aims to describe how the nursing team understands pain assessment and management in newborns at a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The subjects are 16 nursing professionals. The nursing staff identifies pain when behavioral and physiological changes are present. They use the NIPS scale, although it is not effective in clinical practice. Subjects reveal difficulties in making a difference between pain and stress responses in daily work. They are worried about correct pain management in newborns. The search of knowledge about pain is still incipient, and subjects mostly obtain it through their experiences in newborn care and by exchanging experiences with other professionals. The nursing team needs greater access to specific literature about neonatal pain and training courses that can optimize pain management, thus contributing to a better care capacity and to the newborn's quality of life.
Pain; Newborn; Pediatric nursing
