Increasing Healthcare Provider Knowledge about Pediatric Vaccine Administration Pain Mitigation Techniques: A Quality Improvement Project

Abstract

Background: Vaccines, which are very important aspects of a child’s health are aimed at keeping children and the public safe but are known to be painful (Taddio et al., 2015b). The pain experienced by children receiving vaccines can have negative consequences if it is not properly controlled, or attempted to be controlled. The consequences can include future vaccine refusals (which undermines healthcare initiatives), needle phobia, greater pain sensitivities in the future, and a fear of doctors to (Taddio et al., 2015b). The vaccination experience can be made less painful with the use of evidence-based pain mitigation techniques. Pain mitigation techniques consist of actions such as differing holding techniques, distraction, oral sucrose administration, breastfeeding, and tactile stimulation. Although evidence suggests the techniques are highly useful at controlling vaccine administration pain, and subsequently improving the overall healthcare experience, many primary care clinics are not using this evidence-based practice (EBP) (Taddio et al., 2015c). Purpose: This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement (QI) project aimed to improve healthcare provider knowledge about pediatric vaccine pain mitigation techniques with the use of a brief PowerPoint educational intervention. Results: Data was collected using a pre and post-test, and was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a paired t-test. Conclusion: The results are statistically significant with a p value < 0.005 at improving the knowledge of the six healthcare providers who participated in this DNP QI project.