Nurses' Behavior Regarding Pain Treatment in an Emergency Department: A Single-Center Observational Study

Salvatore Sardo; Maura Galletta; Erica Coni; Cesar Ivan Aviles Gonzalez; Ilenia Piras; Giorgio Pia; Maurizio Evangelista; Mario Musu; Gabriele Finco

doi:10.2147/JPR.S266087

Nurses' Behavior Regarding Pain Treatment in an Emergency Department: A Single-Center Observational Study

J Pain Res. 2020 Sep 22:13:2355-2359. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S266087. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Salvatore Sardo^{1

2}, Maura Galletta², Erica Coni³, Cesar Ivan Aviles Gonzalez¹, Ilenia Piras⁴, Giorgio Pia⁴, Maurizio Evangelista⁵, Mario Musu^{1

2}, Gabriele Finco^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Anesthesia and Intensive Care Unit, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
² Department of Medical Sciences and Public Health, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
³ RN-BC, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
⁴ ATS Sardegna, ASSL Cagliari SS, Cagliari, Italy.
⁵ Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine, Cattolica University, Rome, Italy.

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this prospective study was to assess the behavior of emergency department (ED) nurses with regard to pain and their role in pain management in a real-life clinical setting.

Methods: A total of 509 consecutive patients were enrolled during a 6-week period. A case-report form was used to collect data on nurses' approaches to pain, time to analgesia provision, and patient-perceived quality of analgesia.

Results: Triage nurses actively inquired about pain in almost every case, but they did not estimate pain intensity in a third of patients. In the majority of cases, triage nurses did not report pain-related findings to the physician, who was the only professional that could prescribe analgesia to patients. The assignment of the color-coding of triage by nurses appears to be related to the perceived severity of the clinical case and a more comprehensive evaluation of pain. More than half of patients were at least fairly satisfied with analgesia.

Conclusion: Pain is increasingly screened during triage, but its comprehensive assessment and management still lack systematic application. We believe that further education and implementation of analgesia protocols may empower nurses to manage ED patients' pain more effectively and in a more timely manner.

Keywords: ED; emergency; nurse; oligoanalgesia; pain; triage.

Grants and funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. No sponsor(s) were involved in this project.