The effect of the facilitated tucking position on pain intensity during heel stick blood sampling in premature infants: a surprising result

Background: According to research findings, pain experience in neonatal period leads to short- and long-term complications that could be prevented by means of neonatal pain relief. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effect of facilitated tucking position on neonatal pain during heel prick blood sampling. Methods: This is a cross over clinical trial was done on 40 premature neonates. During blood sampling, neonates were put in either facilitated tucking or routine positions randomly and Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP) was completed for each neonate. In the next sampling time, positions were changed and the process repeated. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, repeated measure ANOVA, and independent t-test. Results: Results showed that the mean pain intensity in each position was increased during sampling (p = .0001) and after that was decreased significantly (p = .001), but before, during, and after sampling there was no significant difference between the two positions (p > .05). Conclusions: Overall findings showed that comparing neonates in the two positions; there was no significant difference in their pain intensity. These results are almost in contrast with many researches findings in this area. It seems there is a need to further investigation regarding this subject.