• Brita F Olsen, Tone Rustøen, Leiv Sandvik, Morten Jacobsen, and Berit T Valeberg.
• Intensive and Post Operative Unit, Østfold Hospital Trust, Postbox 300, 1714 Grålum, Norway; Division of Emergencies and Critical Care, Oslo University Hospital, Postbox 4950, Nydalen, 0424 Oslo, Norway; Institute of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo, Postbox 1078, 0316 Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: Brita.Fosser.Olsen@so-hf.no.
• J Crit Care. 2016 Dec 1; 36: 207-211.

PurposeThis study aimed to measure the impact of implementing a pain management algorithm in adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients able to express pain. No controlled study has previously evaluated the impact of a pain management algorithm both at rest and during procedures, including both patients able to self-report and express pain behavior, intubated and nonintubated patients, throughout their ICU stay.Materials And MethodsThe algorithm instructed nurses to assess pain, guided them in pain treatment, and was implemented in 3 units. A time period after implementing the algorithm (intervention group) was compared with a time period the previous year (control group) on the outcome variables: pain assessments, duration of ventilation, length of ICU stay, length of hospital stay, use of analgesic and sedative medications, and the incidence of agitation events.ResultsTotally, 650 patients were included. The number of pain assessments was higher in the intervention group compared with the control group. In addition, duration of ventilation and length of ICU stay decreased significantly in the intervention group compared with the control group. This difference remained significant after adjusting for patient characteristics.ConclusionSeveral outcome variables were significantly improved after implementation of the algorithm compared with the control group.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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