AOS20 Effectiveness of a self-reporting pain assessment tool at the bedside of inpatients with cancer

Abstract

<h3>Background</h3> Pain is common in cancer and a patient's self-report of pain is an essential first step in the management of such pain. However, according to reports of many studies, cancer pain is often managed inadequately because we do not listen to patients' complaints of pain and tend to underestimate their cancer pain. The aim in this study was to assess the effectiveness of self-assessments of pain intensity at the bedside of inpatients, using a self-reporting pain board. <h3>Methods</h3> Pain assessments were done with patients' answers to questions asked by the medical staff that were recorded with a numerical rating scale (NRS) for 3 days and then for the next 3 days patients reported pain using a self-reporting pain board with moving indicators, representing 0–10 on the NRS, and they reported the frequency of their breakthrough pain. <h3>Findings</h3> Fifty consecutive inpatients admitted to the Oncology Department of Chungbuk National University Hospital were included in this observational prospective study from February 2011 to December 2011. Reliability in the patients' self-reported pain versus that recorded by the medical staff increased from 74% to 96% with use of the self-reporting pain board (<i>p</i>=0.004). The difference (mean<mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>standard deviation [SD]) between the NRS reported by patients and that reported in medical records decreased from 3.16<mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>2.08 to 1.00<mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>1.02 (<i>p</i><0.001). Patients' satisfaction with pain management increased from 54% to 82% (<i>p</i>=0.002). Moreover, the difference in the workload of medical staff in assessing patients' pain (mean<mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>SD) decreased from 46.9<mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>15.5 to 24.3<mml:math><mml:mrow><mml:mo>±</mml:mo></mml:mrow></mml:math>11.2 (<i>p</i><0.001). <h3>Interpretation</h3> We suggest that this self-reporting bedside pain assessment tool provides a reliable and effective means for the assessment of cancer pain in inpatients. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.