Nursing practices for pain management in hospitals of a city of Santa Catarina

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:Pain is the fifth vital sign and requires from health professionals specific skills and knowledge for its management. This study aimed at evaluating nursing practices for pain management in hospitals of a city in Southern Brazil. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional and quantitative study carried out by means of a structured questionnaire to evaluate professional characteristics and knowledge about pain in a sample of 418 professionals: 63 nurses and 355 nursing technicians from three hospitals, two public and one private, between July 2012 and August 2013. Chi-square and Fisher Exact tests were used to evaluate associations between explanatory variables and groups (professional category, type of hospital and time of professional exercise), with significance level of 5%. RESULTS: From all participants, 27.5% have attended specific discipline in their qualification; 30.6% have attended pain qualification courses; 66.7% know about pain evaluation methods and 58.6% use them. Private hospital professionals are more skilled in pain evaluation methods (p<0.001), as well as more recently graduated professionals (p=0.005). These methods were more broadly used by nurses (p=0.036); private hospital professionals (p<0.001) and those more recently graduated (p<0.001). Nurses better understand the concept of transduction (p<0.001); private hospital professionals follow more pain evaluation protocols (p<0.001) as well as those more recently graduated (p=0.013). CONCLUSION: Health professionals must improve their knowledge in this area so that nursing practices for pain management are adequately followed in hospitals of a city of Santa Catarina.

Intervenções de enfermagem para pacientes com dor aguda

“…5 It is observed that acute pain presents as the main complaint reported by patients in emergency and emergency services, highlighting that, of approximately 90% 45% of the patients present the pain symptom related to some specific event. 6 It is also observed that acute pain is the most prevalent in emergency room and emergency room visits. 7 It can be seen that few visits to patients with chronic pain in these places are very few, since they seek care of urgency and emergency, most of the time, when a new acute process of the symptom occurs.…”

“…41 Nursing interventions described in the classification of NIC 13 that had not been identified in the Nursing records of the unit were presented. It is reported that, of these, the group identified that, in addition to the mapped intervention, it performed six (6) other interventions in the nursing practice, which were not being registered. These interventions are shown in figure 1.…”

The pain of children with sickle cell disease: the nursing approach

“…Pain is considered the fifth vital sign and health services must encourage and monitor the professionals regarding the assessment of pain as a vital sign, as well as the use of pain scales. Health services must seek to relieve a suffering that is often manageable (23) . The nurses mentioned some methods used to promote the comfort of the child during a painful crisis: offering a peaceful environment, minimizing the noise, encouraging bed rest, stimulating walking when possible and encouraging hydration.…”

Implementação da avaliação da dor como o quinto sinal vital

“…It shows that the limitation of specific knowledge about methods and scales of pain evaluation can contribute to unnecessary suffering of patients and reduction of quality of life. 16 Another explanation for the result of this research is the need to better understand the numerical verbal scale, since the Nursing team in the fifth-degree pain screening may underestimate it. 17 It is reported that in another study that also assessed pain management before and after the fifth sign implantation showed that the management did not change in the treatment of pain and change in analgesia suggesting that the measurement of pain as the fifth vital sign does not change the management of pain routinely.…”