How School Nurses Experience and Understand Everyday Pain Among Adolescents

Overview

Journal BMC Nurs

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Medical Education

Date 2017 Sep 20

PMID 28924390

Citations 6

Authors

Magnhild Hoie

Kristin Haraldstad

Gudrun Rohde

Liv Fegran

Thomas Westergren

Solvi Helseth

Ashild Slettebo

Berit Johannessen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Pain problems are a rapidly growing health problem found among both children and adolescent, and about 15-30% have reported chronic pain problems. School nurses in Norway meet adolescents with various ailments, including pain. Yet research on how school nurses perceive the pain experienced by adolescents is limited. The aim of the present study was to explore how school nurses explain and experience the everyday pain of adolescents.

Method: A qualitative study with an explorative design comprising five focus group interviews. Each group consisted of three to five school nurses. Seventeen female school nurses in five junior high schools in Norway, age range 29-65 years participated. To cover the issues a semi structured interview guide was used. The transcribed text was analysed with qualitative content analysis.

Results: The experience of school nurses with adolescents' pain in everyday life is mainly that pain is a social, physical, and psychological phenomenon. School nurses experienced that everyday pain is reflecting: 1) high expectations, 2) difficult relationships and traumatic experiences and 3) an unhealthy lifestyle. School nurses have ambivalent attitudes to medicalisation of pain.

Conclusion: Despite of a biopsychosocial understanding of pain, the school nurses maintained referral practice of medical examinations, with the results that many adolescents became shuttlecocks in the health system. Although the school nurses´ were sceptical of the tendency towards medicalization in society, it appears that they actually help maintain this tendency.

Citing Articles

Healthcare Professionals' Knowledge about Pediatric Chronic Pain: A Systematic Review.

Pico M, Matey-Rodriguez C, Dominguez-Garcia A, Menendez H, Lista S, Santos-Lozano A Children (Basel). 2023; 10(4).

PMID: 37189914 PMC: 10136554. DOI: 10.3390/children10040665.

The tween years: A systematic literature review for services for children aged 10-13 years.

Bulimwengu A, Cartmel J Heliyon. 2022; 8(1):e08822.

PMID: 35128107 PMC: 8810366. DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08822.

Experiences of a non-clinical set of adolescents and young adults living with persistent pain: a qualitative metasynthesis.

Fegran L, Johannessen B, Ludvigsen M, Westergren T, Hoie M, Slettebo A BMJ Open. 2021; 11(4):e043776.

PMID: 33875442 PMC: 8057544. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043776.

A Philosophical Review of School Nursing Framed by the Holistic Nursing Theory of Barbara Dossey.

Garmy P, Clausson E, Janlov A, Einberg E J Holist Nurs. 2021; 39(3):216-224.

PMID: 33856238 PMC: 8427807. DOI: 10.1177/08980101211006615.

Mikkelsen H, Haraldstad K, Helseth S, Skarstein S, Smastuen M, Rohde G Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2020; 18(1):352.

PMID: 33138833 PMC: 7607747. DOI: 10.1186/s12955-020-01585-9.

References

Kroner-Herwig B, Gassmann J, van Gessel H, Vath N . Multiple pains in children and adolescents: a risk factor analysis in a longitudinal study. J Pediatr Psychol. 2011; 36(4):420-32. DOI: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsq099. View

Forgeron P, Stinson J . Fundamentals of chronic pain in children and young people. Part 1. Nurs Child Young People. 2014; 26(8):29-34. DOI: 10.7748/ncyp.26.8.29.e498. View

Hjern A, Alfven G, Ostberg V . School stressors, psychological complaints and psychosomatic pain. Acta Paediatr. 2007; 97(1):112-7. DOI: 10.1111/j.1651-2227.2007.00585.x. View

Haraldstad K, Sorum R, Eide H, Natvig G, Helseth S . Pain in children and adolescents: prevalence, impact on daily life, and parents' perception, a school survey. Scand J Caring Sci. 2010; 25(1):27-36. DOI: 10.1111/j.1471-6712.2010.00785.x. View

Bond L, Carlin J, Thomas L, Rubin K, Patton G . Does bullying cause emotional problems? A prospective study of young teenagers. BMJ. 2001; 323(7311):480-4. PMC: 48131. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.323.7311.480. View

Hansen D, Hansen E, Holstein B . Using analgesics as tools: young women's treatment for headache. Qual Health Res. 2008; 18(2):234-43. DOI: 10.1177/1049732307312303. View

Merlijn V, Hunfeld J, van der Wouden J, Passchier J . Shortening a quality of life questionnaire for adolescents with chronic pain and its psychometric qualities. Psychol Rep. 2002; 90(3 Pt 1):753-9. DOI: 10.2466/pr0.2002.90.3.753. View

Hoftun G, Romundstad P, Rygg M . Association of parental chronic pain with chronic pain in the adolescent and young adult: family linkage data from the HUNT Study. JAMA Pediatr. 2013; 167(1):61-9. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.422. View

Hoftun G, Romundstad P, Rygg M . Factors associated with adolescent chronic non-specific pain, chronic multisite pain, and chronic pain with high disability: the Young-HUNT Study 2008. J Pain. 2012; 13(9):874-83. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2012.06.001. View

10.

Lask B . The high-achieving child. Postgrad Med J. 1986; 62(724):143-5. PMC: 2418599. DOI: 10.1136/pgmj.62.724.143. View

11.

Du Y, Knopf H, Zhuang W, Ellert U . Pain perceived in a national community sample of German children and adolescents. Eur J Pain. 2010; 15(6):649-57. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpain.2010.11.009. View

12.

Skarstein S, Rosvold E, Helseth S, Kvarme L, Holager T, Smastuen M . High-frequency use of over-the-counter analgesics among adolescents: reflections of an emerging difficult life, a cross-sectional study. Scand J Caring Sci. 2013; 28(1):49-56. DOI: 10.1111/scs.12039. View

13.

Walter S . Lifestyle behaviors and illness-related factors as predictors of recurrent headache in U.S. adolescents. J Neurosci Nurs. 2014; 46(6):337-50. DOI: 10.1097/JNN.0000000000000095. View

14.

Kozlowska K, Rose D, Khan R, Kram S, Lane L, Collins J . A conceptual model and practice framework for managing chronic pain in children and adolescents. Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2008; 16(2):136-50. DOI: 10.1080/10673220802069723. View

15.

Petersen S, Hagglof B, Bergstrom E . Impaired health-related quality of life in children with recurrent pain. Pediatrics. 2009; 124(4):e759-67. DOI: 10.1542/peds.2008-1546. View

16.

Pavletic A . Connecting with frequent adolescent visitors to the school nurse through the use of intentional interviewing. J Sch Nurs. 2011; 27(4):258-68. DOI: 10.1177/1059840511399289. View

17.

Holtedahl R . [The somatization patient in the modern society]. Tidsskr Nor Laegeforen. 2002; 122(11):1130-2. View

18.

Poutiainen H, Levalahti E, Hakulinen-Viitanen T, Laatikainen T . Family characteristics and health behaviour as antecedents of school nurses' concerns about adolescents' health and development: a path model approach. Int J Nurs Stud. 2015; 52(5):920-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2015.01.001. View

19.

Rohde G, Westergren T, Haraldstad K, Johannessen B, Hoie M, Helseth S . Teachers' experiences of adolescents' pain in everyday life: a qualitative study. BMJ Open. 2015; 5(9):e007989. PMC: 4563248. DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2015-007989. View

20.

Shannon R, Bergren M, Matthews A . Frequent visitors: somatization in school-age children and implications for school nurses. J Sch Nurs. 2010; 26(3):169-82. DOI: 10.1177/1059840509356777. View