Being seen by the acute pain service
Our acute paediatric pain service team treats children who are staying as in-patients at Evelina London's hospital that need more help with their pain than children needing only simple pain relief medicines (by mouth or feeding tube). We see all children who need strong pain relief medicines via an infusion drip or epidural.
When will my child be seen by the acute pain team?
If your child has surgery and needs strong pain relief medicines via a drip or epidural afterwards, the team will automatically review your child on a regular basis (at least twice per day) until these infusions are no longer needed. For all other children, once a referral has been made by your nurse or doctor, a member of the team will visit your child on the ward they are staying on as soon as possible.
Who will see my child and what will they do?
Your child will be seen by a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and/or consultant anaesthetist if the referral was made between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Outside of these hours, an anaesthetist or paediatric nurse practitioner (a senior hospital nurse) will visit your child.
During the review, we will talk to both you and your child about the pain they are experiencing and we'll assess their pain level. We will talk to your child's ward nursing and medical/surgical teams and also look at your child's blood pressure, pulse, breathing and temperature as well as their medicine prescriptions.
Once we've assessed your child, we will create a plan for treating their pain which may include changing or adding stronger pain relief medicines. These strong pain relief medicines can be given by mouth or feeding tube, or by an infusion drip.
If we need to continue to monitor your child’s pain and treatment plan, an APPS team member will visit your child every weekday morning. We may also revisit your child in the afternoon to monitor how any changes to their medicines have worked, or sooner if the nursing and/or medical team caring for your child ask us to.
If your child continues to experience severe pain, please let a member of staff know so that we can help your child as quickly as possible.