NURSES’ VOICE WHEN PERCEIVING THE PAIN OF CHILD BURN PATIENTS

Pain is a manifestation considered to be an indicator or consequence of a dangerous pathogenic situation. It is a universal human experience, affecting all individuals of all races. At certain times in life, it is a common reason for requesting health services, and it is the first sign of multiple pathologies1. Burns are some of the most frequent, serious and disabling injuries. Nurses' perception of pain shown by burn patients is an important theme for studies and for the treatment of pain as a symptom, as nurses and patients may have different cognitive frameworks to describe pain. Thus the importance of reporting the experiences nurses have had over the years as part of their professional life, disclosing notable differences in relation to patients' pain episodes and showing how nurses perceive this unpleasant symptom. In this study, nurses show their defense mechanisms, behavioral components, emotions, self-perception of nursing interventions, and emotional aspects. The psychological and emotional characteristics of nurses were displayed while taking care of burn patients, showing them as highly humanistic people. With this study, we seek to answer the basic questions: what is the nurses' experience in view of somatic nociceptive pain in burn patients? How do nurses perceive their actions when dealing with the pain of patients they are treating? The objective of this study was to answer these questions by showing the nurses' speech in view of somatic nociceptive pain in child burn patients, when dealing with the pain of such patients.The objective of this study was to reveal nurses’ perception in view of the nociceptive pain in child burn patients. This qualitative descriptive study was conducted at the Federal District Pediatric Hospital in Mexico City. Data were collected from semistructured interviews with ten nurses working in the burn unit; they were analyzed by content analysis, which yielded three categories. The theoretical framework was based on phenomenology. The results showed the nurses’ experiences, their expression, and their selfdefense mechanisms, as revealed in the perception of their interventions. This highlighted the humanistic load regarding emotions, as the exposure to these feelings implies spending additional strength and energy, because the emotional work becomes more intense as their workloadincreases. Thus, the study concluded that subjects learn about their own experience through experience itself