Keywords
clinical assessment
effectiveness
emergency department
nursing
pain control
How to Cite
Abstract
Aim: Pain management is an important element in an emergency department (ED). Based on existing guidelines for pain management a protocol was devised our emergency department allowing for the administration of an analgesic (World health organization levels 1 and 2) by the nurse without a medical prescription. The main objective of this study was to assess nurse compliance with the ED pain protocol. The secondary objective was to determine its effectiveness in reducing pain.
Methods: Design: Prospectively collected observational project following establishment of the protocol. Patients: All patients older than 15 with a Visual analog core (VAS) result > 0 were eligible for the study. Exclusion criteria were evidence of alcohol or drug intoxication, or inability to speak.
Results: Data collection sheets were completed for 226 patients. The protocol was followed exactly in 13% of patients. Nurses assessed pain and administered only a single analgesic without giving ketoprofen in 10% of cases. They evaluated pain and gave an incorrect analgesic to another 66% of patient. They gave an analgesic without documenting a pain assessment in 2% of patients. For all patients, the VAS did not significantly change between the nurse and the doctor assessment despite interval nurse analgesic administration (4.27 ± 1.49 versus 4.6 ± 2.83 respectively; p=0.27).
Discussion: The nurses in our ED do not follow the pain protocol as they should. A good training is required for an effective pain management. The issuances of analgesic limited to level 1 analgesic are insufficient.
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