The Effect of Facilitated Tucking (FT) During Venipuncture on Duration of Crying in Preterm Infants

Abstract Introduction Humans in the last trimester of gestation are assumed to be in a pain-free environment in the womb, but those neonates who are born preterm often spend weeks in the Neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and undergo numerous painful procedures as part of their routine care. Materials and Methods In this semi-experimental study, 70 preterm infants born at average 32 to 36 weeks' Gestational age (GA), who needed routine blood collection, were allocated to two intervention (35 neonates) and control (35 neonates) groups. In experimental group a nurse held the infant in the side-lying, flexed fetal-type position during blood collection. The stopwatch was used to determine the duration of crying infants. The control group did not receive additional action for pain relief. Data were analyzed by using SPSS version 16 software. Results The mean age of infants was 34.45 ± 1.22 weeks. The results showed that the duration of crying after sampling in the two groups was statistically significant difference, this duration in control group was higher than the intervention group (P