Objective Pain is a multi-dimensional and complex experience which influences all people physically, emotionally and socially. The process of care and pain relief is the duty of nurses. Today, pain is assessing as the fifth human vital signs. Therefore, the standards of nursing care should be prioritized. The objective of this study was to assess the efficacy of kangaroo care (KC) on pain severity during the heel stick in premature infants. Material and method In this interventional study, a

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... al of 20 premature infants recruited during 4 months were enrolled in this study. The inclusion criteria were premature infants with gestational age 27-36 weeks and aged 3-28 days, stable respiratory status. In need of heel stick and Apgar score more than 6 at 5 minutes. In this randomized interventional study the blood is taken from each infant once by using KC and another time by incubator care(IC). In each method, PIPP was used to evaluate the severity of pain. Data were analyzed using by SPSS for Windows. Paired sample t-test was used for data analysis. Findings The severity of pain as the result of heel stick is different in 2 methods. The mean pain score in the KC method was 4.9±2.92 vs IC 11±4.22 and that is, significantly lower than the (IC) (P<0.001). Conclusion KC that starting 30 minutes before and continuing 10 minutes after heel stick was found to be effective in decreasing pain before and after heel stick in premature infants.