Suboptimal management of pain in emergency departments (EDs) remains a problem, despite having been first described over two decades ago. A 'before-and-after' intervention study (with a historical control) was undertaken in one Western Australian tertiary hospital ED to test the effect of a 'nurse-initiated pain protocol' (NIPP) intervention. A total of 889 adult patients were included: 144 in the control group and 745 in the intervention group. Patients in the intervention group were: More likely to have a pain score recorded than those in the control group; have reduced median time to the first pain score; and reduced time to analgesia. The statistically significant reduction in both time to pain score and time to analgesia remained, even when adjusted by age and sex. Whilst we demonstrated the safety and efficacy of a NIPP in ED, an unacceptable proportion of patients continued to have inadequate pain relief.

The researchers designed this study to determine if the length of semester impacts play therapy training for master's level graduate students. The various semesters studied were a 3-week mini-session, a regular 5-week summer session, and a regular 15-week semester. The Play Therapy Attitude- Knowledge-Skill Survey (PTAKSS) was used to collect pre-and post-training data. This instrument measures three aspects of child-centered play therapy training: (a) the attitudes regarding essential beliefs and interaction patterns, (b) the knowledge of what should be known, and (c) the level of confidence in applying play therapy skills. There was significant change within each group of students in all three aspects of training as computed with Paired Differences t test. Results of the analysis of covariance indicated no significant difference in any aspect of the child-centered play therapy training between semester length.Play therapy has become an important therapeutic discipline practiced by a diverse range of mental health professionals in a variety of settings (

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