Behavioral Pain Assessment Tool for Critically Ill Adults Unable to Self-Report Pain

Insights and Advances in Multidisciplinary Critical Care: A Review of Recent Research

“…76 Systematic pain assessment can improve patients' outcome, and several assessment tools are now available. 77 In a Canadian investigation 78 based on 802 surveys, researchers nevertheless found that a considerable proportion of ICU nurses did not use any pain assessment tool for patients who were unable to verbalize their needs. Moreover, respondents' awareness of published guidelines for pain management was limited.…”

“…In turn, a study 77 conducted in 2 Canadian ICUs showed that implementation of the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) successfully increased the frequency of pain assessment and influenced administration of analgesics in both units.…”

Pain, Agitation, and Delirium Guidelines: Nurses’ Involvement in Development and Implementation

“…46 Implementation of pain, agitation/ sedation, and delirium assessment tools has resulted in improved use of medication and improved patient outcomes such as shorter ICU stays and reduced mortality. 31,42,43,45,46 These results may be related to the earlier identification and treatment of pain, agitation/ sedation, and delirium.…”

“…Short training sessions from 20 to 60 minutes for the use of pain, sedation, and delirium scales with support tools such as posters, pocket cards, and videos have proven effective. [42][43][44][45] Further information about the tools advocated within the PAD guidelines may be found online through the SCCM website Liberation initiative (http://www.sccm.org/Research /Quality/Pages/ICU-Liberation.aspx). Change champions who receive extra training and become specialists in this area of practice also are helpful during the implementation process to provide feedback and solve immediate problems.…”

People with dementia need better pain management

“…These methods use verbal and visual self-report scales, face pictures and bedside observation of posture, protection, facial expression and behaviour during daily activities. 4,5 Other methods that are being studied for assessing pain in critically ill adults who cannot self-report pain 8 hold promise for pain management in noncommunicative people with dementia.…”