Neonatal Infants Pain Scale (NIPS)

1. Neonatal Infants Pain Scale

2. The Neonatal Infants Pain Scale or NIPS is used in children less than one year of age. Children at this age are not able to tell us if they are in pain. This scale uses body language to help us to understand if a child is in pain.

3. A child is evaluated and either scored a 0 or 1 in each category based on their behavior. A total score is calculated. Most of the time a score greater than 3 tells us a child is likely to be experiencing pain or discomfort.

4. It is also a behavioral scale and can be utilized with both full-term and pre-term infants. The tool was adapted from the CHEOPS scale and uses the behaviors that nurses have described a being indicative of infant pain or distress.

5. The is a behavioral scale for evaluating postoperative pain in young children. It can be used to monitor the effectiveness of interventions for reducing the pain and discomfort. Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario Pain Scale (CHEOPS)

6. It is composed of six indicators:

7. 1. Facial expression

8. 2. Cry

9. 3. Breathing patterns

10. 4. Arms 5. Legs 6. State of arousal

11. Each behavioral indicator is scored with 0 or 1 except "cry", which has three possible descriptors therefore, being scored with a 0, 1 or 2. See the NIPS scale for the description of infant behavior in each indicator group. Infants should be observed for one minute in order to fully assess each indicator.

12. Total pain scores range from 0-7. The suggested interventions based upon the infant's level of pain are listed below. The difficulty with any tool that is not self- report is the ability to differentiate between pain and agitation, however, the non- pharmacological intervention may help differentiate between these two (i.e. changing the wet diaper, feeding the infant, repositioning, etc.).

13. Albert Gabriel Co Anne Rodenelle Dapiton Ellene Grace Dewara Group 4