Pain Assessment in Emergency Department of Teaching Hospital in Lalitpur
Abstract
Introduction: Proper pain assessment is directly related to proper pain management. The American pain society (APS) in 1996 instituted “the pain as the 5th vital sign”, in an effort to reduce the burden of underassessment and inadequate pain management. The objective of this study is to find out the practice of pain assessment and to make improvements.
Methods: This was an observational study of pain assessment by the medical officer in the emergency department (ED).Convenience sampling was done at three different shifts in ED. All the data of pain assessment was taken and tabulated and analyzed to know the practice of pain assessment. Standard as set at 80%. In the first stage data collection was done for one month as per convenience. Following the observed finding, in the second stage intervention was done. After this in the third stage re-data collection was done to see the improvement.
Results: A total of 503 patients were enrolled in this study. Out of this 53% (n=265) were in the first stage and 47% (n=238) in the third stage of the study. In the first stage of the study, there was 7% (n=19) documentation of numerical rating scale (NRS) and PQRST (P-precipitating and palliating factor, Q-quality of pain, R-radiation, S-site of pain, T-timing of pain) was not documented. After the intervention in third stage documentation of NRS was done in 70% (n=167) and documentation of PQRST was variable.
Conclusions: The study revealed that the existing practice of pain assessment in the emergency department is poor but after the intervention, there was a remarkable improvement in the pain assessment.
Keywords: Pain, Fifth Vital Sign, Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Pain Assessment
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The author(s) retain the copyright and the full publishing right without restriction under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0) which allows readers to share (copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the material) for any purpose, even commercially, provided the work is properly attributed. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Author(s) grant the non-exclusive publishing right to the Journal of Karnali Academy of Health Sciences (JKAHS). The publishing rights include the rights to publish, reproduce, distribute, include in indexes or search databases or other media in print or online. The JKAHS may require revisions to the manuscript before acceptance for publication or may choose not to publish it based on the judgement of the editors. Further, JKAHS might retract, withdraw, or publish a correction or other notice after publication, if such publication would be inconsistent with the good publication practices and associated guidelines set forth by the COPE (Committee on Publication Ethics) (https://publicationethics.org/core-practices).
More information about the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License can be found in the webpage of Creative Commons (CC) by following the link provided below: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/