Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Systematic pain assessment is necessary to ensure effective pain management. Despite the availability of recommendations, guidelines, and valid tools for pain assessment, the actual implementation in clinical practice is inconsistent. ⋯ The majority of intensive care unit nurses used pain assessment tools for patients both able and unable to communicate; however, the most valid and reliable tools were not used often. Nurses were not aware of the pain behaviors most indicative of pain among critically ill patients.
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Pain is a subjective experience, unfortunately, some patients cannot provide a self-report of pain verbally, in writing, or by other means. In patients who are unable to self-report pain, other strategies must be used to infer pain and evaluate interventions. In support of the ASPMN position statement "Pain Assessment in the Patient Unable to Self-Report", this paper provides clinical practice recommendations for five populations in which difficulty communicating pain often exists: neonates, toddlers and young children, persons with intellectual disabilities, critically ill/unconscious patients, older adults with advanced dementia, and patients at the end of life. Nurses are integral to ensuring assessment and treatment of these vulnerable populations.
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Enhancing pain patient's ability to function and cope is important, but assessing only intensity ignores those aspects of pain. The Functional Pain Scale (FPS), addresses these dimensions but lacked validation in hospitalized adults with chronic pain. ⋯ Although statistically significant, the reliability and validity of FPS were not as strong in hospitalized chronic pain patients as reported for older adults in other settings.
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The use of reliable pain assessment measures is essential for scoring and managing pain in infants. The Premature Infant Pain Profile (PIPP) is reliable and valid and has been recently revised. To adapt and validate the PIPP-R into Portuguese and to evaluate its psychometric properties are required to ensure maintenance of meaning and content. ⋯ The Premature Infant Pain Profile-Revised was culturally adapted into Brazilian Portuguese. Appropriate content validity index was determined. Evidence of construct validity was also found. Future studies are warranted to explore the feasibility and other psychometric properties of using the Premature Infant Pain Profile-Revised translated and adapted into Brazilian Portuguese in the clinical setting.
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A variety of valid tools are available to assess staff knowledge and attitudes regarding pain, among which is the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain. Although this instrument has been widely and successfully used, a valid and adapted Spanish version is yet to be developed. The purpose of this study was to validate the Spanish version of the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain. ⋯ Palliative care nurses had the highest score, 70.8%, which differed significantly from the rest of the groups. The Spanish version of the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain can effectively differentiate nursing staff in terms of their pain expertise. The results indicate that Spanish nurses have a gap in pharmacologic knowledge that is comparable to that found in other countries, but their foundation in general pain concepts was solid.