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Daily pain assessment: value for nurses and patients
Author(s) -
De Rond Marlies,
De Wit Rianne,
Van Dam Frits,
Van Campen Brigitte,
Den Hartog Yvonne,
Klievink Rietje,
Nieweg Roos,
Noort Janny,
Wagenaar Margret,
Van Campen Barbara
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2648.1999.00903.x
Subject(s) - pain assessment , medicine , physical therapy , activities of daily living , visual analogue scale , rating scale , nursing assessment , medline , pain management , psychology , developmental psychology , political science , law
Daily pain assessment: value for nurses and patients ¶ Current guidelines for pain management recommend systematic assessment of pain. A few standardized tools exist for the daily assessment of pain intensity, for example the numeric rating scale or visual analogue scale, yet these instruments are rarely used by nurses. In the study reported in this paper, a numeric rating scale accompanied by an educational programme for nurses, was implemented in three hospitals. The paper describes the feasibility of daily pain assessment from the nurses' and patients' perspective in multiple settings. The outcomes studied were the professional compliance of nurses with daily pain assessment, and the value of daily pain assessment for both nurses and patients. The results show that nurses' compliance with daily pain assessment is high (73·9%) and that daily pain assessment is feasible and valued by nurses; however, differences between the three hospitals and two specialties (medical vs. surgical wards) were found. Although patients have difficulty with expressing their pain by use of a number, almost all patients are able to give a pain score and a majority is positive about daily pain assessment. From this study it can be concluded that daily pain assessment is practical and appreciated by nurses as well as patients, but attuning the implementation protocol to the needs of the specific setting is necessary.