Introduction

To describe the perceptions of private-university nursing students on the experience from the implementation of non-pharmacological methods to manage pain in childbirth care in the theoretical and practical components.

Materials and Methods

Qualitative research with focus group technique; a semi-structured interview was used, and two focus groups were created with 16 students from 5-to-7-semester courses enrolled during the first term of 2018.

Results

62.5% of the participants were women and 37.5% were men; the average age was 24.4 (6.6%). 2 categories and 10 subcategories emerged upon analyzing the narratives of the focus group. It is worth mentioning about the categories that the participants identify non-pharmacological methods present in the theoretical component, but not all methods can be implemented in educational internship scenarios; concerns also arose about the minimum inputs required to develop a kit for the implementation of non-pharmacological methods to manage pain.

Discussion

Based on the researched articles and the analysis performed, several authors established different non-pharmacological methods that are effective and applicable to mothers; nursing students apply such methods and generally obtain positive outcomes and lessons for improvement.

Conclusions

In general, all participants recognize the importance of using non-pharmacological methods to manage pain in pregnant women during childbirth care, and they also identify that these methods reduce pain intensity, help reducing the length of labor, and facilitate communication between nursing staff and pregnant women.

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