Nurses say inflicting pain on babies is torture, but unavoidable
If a nurse has ever given you a needle, you will know it hurts but that the pain is worthwhile.
Now, imagine giving another person that needle. And imagine that person being an extremely premature baby, and being no bigger than your hand.
Nurses routinely inflict pain on extremely preamture babies (defined as 24 weeks old or less) to help boost their chance of survival, but it can be distressing for nurses to see these babies in pain.
Janet Green is a registered nurse with a PhD from the University of Technology, Sydney. Janet has recently published a paper about how nurses feel about inflicting pain on this vulnerable population.
Image: Joshua Smith on Flickr.
