• Minyan Chen and James A Hughes.
• School of Nursing, Queensland University of Technology, Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland, 4059, Australia.
• Australas Emerg Care. 2020 Jun 1; 23 (2): 114-118.

BackgroundPatients with cognitive impairment are at risk of substantial delays to analgesic medication when presenting to the emergency department in pain.AimTo identify if patients from residential aged care facilities with cognitive impairment experience the same delays to analgesic medication are reported in the general emergency department population.MethodsThis study is a retrospective case-control review of patients presenting to one emergency department with pain as a presenting complaint from residential aged care, with and without cognitive impairment.ResultsPatients without cognitive impairment experience delays in time to first analgesic medication (175min vs 98min, p=0.006) compared to cognitively impaired patients from residential aged care facilities. Both cohorts of patients waited more than three times the national benchmark for analgesic medication and 66% of all patients in this study did not have pain assessment completed.ConclusionPatients presenting from residential caged care facilities in this study without cogitative impairment wait longer for analgesia then patients who present with cogitative impairment, contrary to previously described relationships. Pain assessment and treatment are open to cogitative bias, and in the absence of pain assessment cogitative bias may prevail leading to poor pain care and discrepancies between patients with and without cogitative impairment.Copyright © 2019 College of Emergency Nursing Australasia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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