ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to provide the evidence for best practice for the assessment and management of pain in neonates. Nurses prevail on the front line in ensuring that neonates and their families receive the best care for managing painful interventions. Despite an overwhelming volume of research, an evidence-practice gap for the assessment and management of pain in neonates persists. Pain pathways consist of a network that communicates unpleasant sensations of noxious stimuli throughout the body. The plasticity of the developing brain contributes to its vulnerability to the stressors that cause long-term developmental changes, ultimately leading to adverse neurological outcomes. Observational studies have highlighted the impact of early pain experience upon later pain behaviour. Brummelte found that a reduction of white matter and subcortical grey matter maturation occurred when there were a higher number of skin breaks, which are markers for early neonatal pain-related stress.
