ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates that children's pain is not managed appropriately in practice and explores the evidence that demonstrates the mythological status of the misconceptions about paediatric pain. The factors that influence health care professionals in their assessment of pain will then be discussed and finally consideration will be given to changing practice. Research on paediatric pain, however, has proliferated in the last 15 years but health care professionals are still not managing pain appropriately. Health care professionals' perceptions of children's pain are not always accurate. Nurses rely on intuitions, assumptions and personal beliefs in order to assess children's pain. Analysis of the findings indicates that children's pain is still not being managed effectively. This has serious implications – not only are children suffering unnecessary pain but unrelieved pain has many undesirable consequences. Nurses continue to have misconceptions about paediatric pain in spite of the compelling evidence that demonstrates that they are myths.
