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- Title
Pain Assessment and Management for Non-Verbal Patients in a Neuro Intensive Care Unit.
- Authors
Topolovec-Vranic, Jane; Canzian, Sonya; Innis, Jennifer; White McFarlan, Amanda
- Abstract
Accurate pain assessment and management in non-verbal or cognitively impaired patients is challenging. Patients who cannot verbalize or indicate the presence of pain are at greater risk of inadequate pain management and a potentially prolonged recovery period. Analgesics may be delayed or withheld because of concern that they will obscure the patient's diagnosis. Moreover, clinicians may be concerned about respiratory distress or hypotension secondary to opioid or analgesic administration. As a quality improvement project, a retrospective chart review was conducted, and staff and patient satisfaction questionnaires were developed to examine pain assessment and management practices in a trauma and neurosurgical intensive care unit (TNICU). The chart review demonstrated that pain assessments were not routinely documented on patients' charts. The staff satisfaction surveys indicated that the nursing staff would feel more confident in assessing and managing their patient's pain if an appropriate, accurate pain assessment tool was available to them. The outcomes of this project have provided a foundation upon which a new adult non-verbal pain rating scale will be implemented and evaluated in the TNICU. The aim of this session will be to review the results of the project and to examine the options for pain assessment and management in patients unable to self-report pain.
- Subjects
PAIN management
- Publication
AXON/ L'AXONE, 2006, Vol 27, Issue 3, p26
- ISSN
0834-7824
- Publication type
Abstract