Evaluation of a parent-targeted video in Portuguese to improve pain management practices in neonates.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To assess parents' knowledge on breastfeeding, skin to skin care and sweet solutions as neonatal analgesic strategies, and to evaluate parents' perception on the feasibility, acceptability and usefulness of the Portuguese version of the "Be Sweet to Babies" video.

BACKGROUND: Neonatal pain management during blood sampling is suboptimal, and knowledge translation strategies are needed to improve clinical practices. The "Be Sweet to Babies" video is a parent-targeted knowledge translation tool that shows the effectiveness of breastfeeding, skin to skin contact and sweet solutions for procedural pain relief.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study.

METHODS: Parents of infants hospitalised in an intensive care unit watched the video during their infants' hospitalisation and then answered a survey. Descriptive analyses of the data were performed.

RESULTS: Hundred parents were included. The majority did not know about the analgesic effects of breastfeeding (80%), skin to skin contact (69%) and sweet solutions (93%), and a limited number of parents stated their infants had received the strategies during painful procedures (7%, 11%, 2%, respectively). After watching the video, all (100%) parents intended to use or to advocate for one of the strategies; most (90%) of the parents would use any of the methods. All parents (100%) would recommend the video and considered the video useful, easy to understand, easy to apply in real scenarios. Length of the video was considered as ideal by 92%.

CONCLUSIONS: The Portuguese version of the "Be Sweet to Babies" video is feasible, acceptable and useful for parental education and is a persuasive knowledge translation tool. Further studies are needed to evaluate the effects of this parent-targeted intervention on the implementation of the analgesic strategies during clinical care.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: This article highlights the importance of exploring evidence-based knowledge translation tools for improving neonatal care and outcomes.