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The International Association for the Study of Pain

Co-development of strategies to support parent-led infant pain care: Marrying implementation science theory and stakeholder engagement for health system change

Symposia

Abstract Description

Untreated pain in infants is associated with adverse health outcomes. Despite strong evidence for accessible, effective, and lost-cost parent-led pain-relieving interventions such as breastfeeding and skin-to-skin contact, these interventions are inconsistently used in clinical practice. In this presentation, findings of an implementation study aiming to (1) identify barriers and facilitators to parent-led infant pain care and (2) develop theory- and stakeholder-informed implementation interventions for supporting parent-led pain care will be discussed. This study consisted of two phases that followed a systematic approach guided by the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Behavior Change Wheel. In phase 1, we used a qualitative descriptive design to explore barriers and facilitators to using parent-led infant pain care from the perspective of hospital and community-based clinicians, clinical leaders, and families. In phase 2, we used the Behaviour Change Wheel to design tailored implementation interventions with evidence for effectively addressing the identified barriers in collaboration with an advisory committee of administrative, clinical, and family leaders. This presentation will utilize these findings to discuss the value of implementation science theory and will highlight methods to support meaningful stakeholder engagement to guide implementation research that supports evidence-informed infant pain care in diverse acute and community clinical healthcare contexts.

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