Skip to main content

Pain & Comfort

Learn about education, services, research, and evidence-based practices about pain care.
Research shows that people who experience high quality pain management while in hospital have shorter recovery periods and fewer hospital return visits.
Education & training

BC Children's Hospital offers many opportunities for all staff to be involved and learn more about pediatric pain to better support patients at the hospital.

 

BC Children’s Hospital internal education 

Partnering for Pain 

This course was designed by BC Children’s Hospital staff to advance awareness of the ChildKind framework and build on current knowledge about pain care 

Comfort Protocol 

During this course, you will become aware of the Comfort Protocol for Clinical Procedures, also known as the Comfort PACT (Pain Addressed Comfort Tended). The Comfort PACT assists in making comfort a priority by encouraging  healthcare professionals to apply five key pillars to support a person's comfort during clinical procedures: preparation, communication, comfort positions, alternate focus, and medication.


Provincial education

Pain BC Modules 

Pain BC offers a series of pain education initiatives for healthcare professionals, with the following goals: explore pain science and how it relates to your practice; upgrade your profession-specific skills; gain improved competence in providing care for pain. Explore their website to learn more about the courses offered by Pain BC.


National/International education

Toronto Sick Kids Online Paediatric Pain Curriculum

If you would like to gain more in-depth knowledge about pediatric pain, Toronto Sick Kids offers a series of self-paced modules. “The goal of the Online Paediatric Pain Curriculum is to provide a broad education platform for health-care professionals to learn about pain with clinical, basic science and ethical themes”.

And more


Department of Pain Medicine, Palliative Care & integrative Medicine, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota Minneapolis,  Pediatric Pain Master Class 

Stad Centre for Pediatric Pain, Palliative and Integrative Medicine, Pediatric Pain Master Class

University of Alberta, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine. Graduate Certificate in Pain Management 

 
  • Pain in Child Health: Global Research Training has cultivated a tight-knit community of scientists and trainees dedicated to learning and informing changes in practice to minimize pain and suffering of children around the globe.
  • Internationa Association for the Study of Pain Research Forum is an interactive web community dedicated to finding new treatments for pain conditions. 
  • Pain Research Forum: Pain 101 is a collection of articles covering basic questions in pain research.
  • The Aboriginal Children’s Hurt & Healing (ACHH) Initiative is working with communities and clinicians to bridge the gap in our understanding of Indigenous children’s pain and hurt and improve healthcare experiences
  • Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP) is a Canadian national knowledge mobilization network working to improve children’s pain management by mobilizing evidence-based solutions through coordination and collaboration. SKIP seeks to bridge the gap between current treatment practices and available evidence for children's pain.

 
‎Comfort Protocol education series
A series of four webinars recorded to explain the five pillars of the Comfort Protocol for Clinical Procedures, also known as the Comfort PACT (Pain Addressed Comfort Tended). The Comfort PACT assists in making comfort a priority by encouraging healthcare professionals to apply five key pillars to support a person's comfort during clinical procedures: preparation, communication, comfort positions, alternate focus, and medication. This webinar series is meant to accompany the Comfort Protocol for Clinical Procedures e-learning available on Learning Hub

 
ChildKind webinar series
Presentations and Q&As with exciting guests,  panelists of pain experts, and ChildKind representatives. Topics range from best practices in pain treatment, discussions about obstacles to developing & sustaining pain management infrastructure, and current topics such as COVID-19 impact on pediatric pain.

Find the webinar recordings here!


Children’s Healthcare Canada spark series
The Children's Healthcare Canada SPARK: live webinar series is a weekly webinar program dedicated to bringing together trusted and credible voices from across the child and youth healthcare continuum.” (Note: click on the words “pain” or “pediatric pain”)

In this webinar a panel of presenters provide a brief background on the Canadian Pain Task Force and discuss the findings from the first two phases of the Task Force’s mandate


 
BC Children’s Hospital Pain Symposium 2021

Watch recordings of BC Children's Hospital 3rd annual symposium which features presentations from leading pediatric pain specialists and health care providers from across Canada on a variety of topics related to managing acute and chronic complex pain in children and youth. The symposium also includes a panel discussion with youth living with chronic pain and their families on the impacts of untreated pain and ways to improve pain management and support.


National/International conferences

 
BC Children's Hospital Project ECHO Pediatrics Series 2021: Comfort with Complexity
Through this project, participants gained knowledge through access to specialty clinical experts, an inter-professional network, and a practice community to support the delivery of best-practice care to optimize comfort for pediatric patients with a serious illness and medical complexity.  Request resources from the session here.


Paediatric Project ECHO – SickKids Hospital Toronto 
SickKids ECHO project provides healthcare providers with access to evidence-based knowledge, an interprofessional network, and a community of practice to support the delivery of safe and effective care to their paediatric patients.
Access Pediatric ECHO sessions related to Pediatric Pain


Special Interest Group on Pain in Childhood 
Join the Special Interest Group of the International Association for the Study of Pain applying pain research and treatment. 

 


 
 

Nothing to highlight this month, please check back later for featured upcoming events.









Resources & services

All staff and healthcare providers are invited to understand more about the resources and services available to you and patients and families. 

 

There are various services and departments at BC Children’s Hospital that support pain care:


Complex Pain Service

  • The Complex Pain Clinic serves pediatric patients with chronic pain, complex pain, and/or persisting (non-cancer) pain that significantly impairs function.

Acute Pain Service

  • The Acute Pain Service (APS) is a consultative service that is accessed by a patient's sub-specialty care team to support and promote best practice in managing discomfort when infants, children and youth are in hospital.

Child Life Specialist

  • Certified Child Life Specialists at BC Children's Hospital make hospitalization a more positive experience for patients through play, therapeutic interventions, preparation, and creative arts.

Department of Anesthesia

  • The Department of Pediatric Anesthesia cares for children of all ages with many different medical conditions. Our team of anesthesiologists (medical doctors) provide sedation, anesthesia, and analgesia for a wide range of surgical and diagnostic procedures. We are also experts in pain management and critical care.

Department of Psychology

  • We serve children and families dealing with acute and chronic medical conditions, mental health disorders, and psychiatric disorders

Department of Physiotherapy

  • Physiotherapy is offered to inpatients and outpatients, and in other clinics at the hospital. We provide preventive, diagnostic and rehabilitative services to enhance the quality of cardiorespiratory, musculoskeletal and neurological function in children.

 

Quick reference of evidence-based practice documents to support pain care, all documents are available on SHOP.


 

 
 

 

The following resources are meant for healthcare professionals to share with persons and families.


Pediatric pain guide for caregivers: Understanding pain from the Family Support and Resource Centre (FSRC)

This guide features resources to help families learn about and manage their infant's, child's, and youth's pain. It lists resources for caregivers, children and youth, which can be accessed online or borrowed from the FSRC free of charge. Feel free to share this webpage with persons and families.


For example, this guide features:

Family Resource Pain Guide


BC Children's Pain Management and Comfort web page

The BC Children's Hospital pain and comfort webpage is a hub for staff and the public to access many available online resources related to pain care. The webpage also has information regarding pain services provided at BC Children's.


Coping Plan template

A coping plan (PDF) can help patients and families prepare for their procedure and outline strategies that will be used to help them cope.


Kelty Mental Health Resource Centre

Kelty Mental Health helps families across the province navigate the mental health system, connect with peer support, and access resources and tools to support wellbeing.


Mycarepath website

The Mycarepath website provides education and resources to youth and their families on chronic pain.


Meg Foundation

Meg Foundation has many educational resources for empowering children and families to prevent and relieve pain. The Meg Foundation's mission is "to empower families with the pain management strategies, skills, and support they need to prevent and reduce pain."


Power over Pain Portal

This course-like online tool provides resources and support for those with chronic pain to feel empowered in their coping journey. The site is geared towards youth and Canadian health care providers.

 

Find current research for your practice with UpToDate.


Research & publications
There is a growing body of knowledge regarding pediatric pain research. Included below are some current resources to stay current with research about children’s pain, neuroscience, and pain experience.

 
Canadian Pain Task Force
Established in 2019, the Task Force provides advice to the Government of Canada regarding evidence and best practices for the prevention and management of chronic pain. The Task Force has delivered three reports to Health Canada, one for each of the three elements of their mandate.


The Lancet: Delivering transformative action in paediatric pain
This Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Commission presents four transformative goals—to make pain matter, understood, visible, and better. It sets out priorities for clinicians, researchers, funders, and policy makers, and calls for cross-sector collaboration to deliver the action needed to improve the lives of children and adolescents with pain.

Pain: The Journal of the International Association for the Study of Pain
Pain is the journal from the International Association for the Study of Pain publishing articles on basic and applied science addressing pain-related topics.

Pain Reports 
PAIN Reports is an official publication of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). An open access multidisciplinary journal that publishes continuously. PAIN Reports promotes a global, rapid, and readily accessible forum that advances clinical, applied, and basic research on pain.


 

 

Nothing to highlight this month, please check back later for featured opportunities.

 


Tab Heading
SOURCE: Pain & Comfort ( )
Page printed: . Unofficial document if printed. Please refer to SOURCE for latest information.

Copyright © BC Children's Hospital. All Rights Reserved.

    Copyright © 2024 Provincial Health Services Authority.