The difficulty of evaluating and measuring pain in a premature newborn constitutes as an obstacle to care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. In response to this challenge, we developed the proposal of this study, centered on the identification of pain in premature newborns through the utilization of facial mimicry. The objectives of this study were to analyze how mothers and nurses identify the pain of premature newborns and to verify the capacity of nurses and mothers in identifying the signs of pain through facial expressions. This exploratory descriptive study involved 24 mothers and 12 nurses. In order to collect the data we utilized a questionnaire with open, as well as closed, questions and a collage of six photos of newborns as evaluated by the Neonatal Facial Coding System. We conclude that mothers better identify pain through facial expressions in comparison with nurses. Pain evaluation should be a concern of the nurse, for in order to provide care, aspects such as identifying this signs and their characterizations are instruments of care for the premature newborn.
Neonatal nursing; Premature infant; Pain measurement
