• Eun Bi Kim, Hye-Suk Han, Jung Hwa Chung, Bo Ram Park, Sung-Nam Lim, Kyoung Hoon Yim, Young Duck Shin, Ki Hyeong Lee, Wun-Jae Kim, and Seung Taik Kim.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Chungbuk National University Hospital, Cheongju, South Korea.
• J Palliat Med. 2012 Nov 1;15(11):1222-33.

BackgroundPain is common during cancer treatment, and patient self-reporting of pain is an essential first step for ideal cancer pain management. However, many studies on cancer pain management report that, because pain may be underestimated, it is often inadequately managed.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of bedside self-assessment of pain intensity for inpatients using a self-reporting pain board.MethodsFifty 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. The medical staff performed pain assessments by asking patients questions and using verbal rated scales (VRS) over 3 consecutive days. Then, for 3 additional days, patients used a self-reporting pain board attached to the bed, which had movable indicators representing 0-10 on a numeric rating scale (NRS) and the frequency of breakthrough pain.ResultsPatient reliability over the medical staff's pain assessment increased from 74% to 96% after applying the self-reporting pain board (p=0.004). The gap (mean±standard deviation [SD]) between the NRS reported by patients and the NRS recorded on the medical records decreased from 3.16±2.08 to 1.00±1.02 (p<0.001), and the level of patient satisfaction with pain management increased from 54% to 82% (p=0.002).ConclusionThis study suggests that the self-reporting bedside pain assessment tool provides a reliable and effective means of assessing pain in oncology inpatients.

19 keywords...

hide…