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- Title
A nurse-initiated pain protocol in the ED improves pain treatment in patients with acute musculoskeletal pain.
- Authors
Pierik, Jorien G J; Berben, Sivera A; IJzerman, Maarten J; Gaakeer, Menno I; van Eenennaam, Fred L; van Vugt, Arie B; Doggen, Carine J M
- Abstract
While acute musculoskeletal pain is a frequent complaint, its management is often neglected. An implementation of a nurse-initiated pain protocol based on the algorithm of a Dutch pain management guideline in the emergency department might improve this. A pre-post intervention study was performed as part of the prospective PROTACT follow-up study. During the pre- (15 months, n = 504) and post-period (6 months, n = 156) patients' self-reported pain intensity and pain treatment were registered. Analgesic provision in patients with moderate to severe pain (NRS ≥4) improved from 46.8% to 68.0%. Over 10% of the patients refused analgesics, resulting into an actual analgesic administration increase from 36.3% to 46.1%. Median time to analgesic decreased from 10 to 7 min (P < 0.05), whereas time to opioids decreased from 37 to 15 min (P < 0.01). Mean pain relief significantly increased to 1.56 NRS-points, in patients who received analgesic treatment even up to 2.02 points. The protocol appeared to lead to an increase in analgesic administration, shorter time to analgesics and a higher clinically relevant pain relief. Despite improvements, suffering moderate to severe pain at ED discharge was still common. Protocol adherence needs to be studied in order to optimize pain management.
- Publication
International emergency nursing, 2016, Vol 27, p3
- ISSN
1878-013X
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1016/j.ienj.2016.02.001