Administration of the ASCO Pain Survey to identify patient education deficiencies in patients with cancer.

Abstract

68 Background: The Doris Howell Palliative Care (PC) Outpatient Consultation Service consists of a multidisciplinary team. Reasons for consultation include pain management, treatment of other physical symptoms, education about non-drug options for pain, and advanced care planning. To assess methods used for patient education, the PC team administered the ASCO pain survey to those prescribed opioid pain medications. Methods: The survey was a 26-item questionnaire evaluating patient education content communicated by a provider to a patient during a routine clinic visit. Twenty surveys were completed anonymously. After survey review, the outpatient PC team developed an intervention to address patient education concerns. The intervention consisted of written and verbal instructions on pain medication management reviewed by the PC nurse with the patient and/or caregiver at the end of the outpatient visit. Another twenty surveys were completed anonymously with patients after intervention implementation. Time required to complete the intervention was less than two minutes per patient. The Fisher’s exact test was used to analyze the differences between surveys completed with or without the intervention. Results: The majority of patients stated that his/her provider adequately explained the use (n = 40, 100%), side effects (n = 37, 93%), and storage (n = 32, 80%) of pain medications, regardless of the intervention. Both groups also indicated that the provider and/or nurse adequately explained the risks associated with medical history (n = 34, 85%) and other medications while taking pain medications (n = 33, 83%). The intervention did increase understanding to avoid sharing pain medications (75% vs. 85%, p < 0.05) and to use a lock box to secure pain medications (45% vs. 60%, p < 0.05). Additionally, asking patients if family members have a history of alcohol or substance abuse was also significant (p < 0.05). Conclusions: Written and verbal instructions as an intervention improved patient understanding to avoid sharing pain medications and to secure pain medications in a lock box.