Pflege
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People with cognitive impairment and consecutive communication disturbance are, due to their illness, a very vulnerable group of patients. They are particularly at risk that their pain is not well assessed and therefore often not treated adequately. Insufficient pain management however impacts health status and decreases cognitive functioning and the patients' quality of life. ⋯ First results showed that pain was individually assessed with the patients in each shift and that pain was treated both with and without medication. Nurses paid more attention to pain assessment and improved their practice of structured assessments in patients with severe cognitive impairment. We therefore recommend applying both the standard and the pain assessment instrument BESD with cognitively impaired patients.
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This article reports the second part of a comprehensive study examining patient satisfaction with nursing care in ambulatory patients of a Swiss emergency department. A descriptive cross-sectional study examined patient satisfaction, using a revised version of the questionnaire
in a convenience sample of 114 patients. The occurrence and intensity of anxiety, insecurity, worry, pain, dyspnoea, nausea, thirst and hunger, and their correlation with patient satisfaction were analyzed. ⋯ Patients who suffered from the states or symptoms described above and reported receiving ineffective nursing interventions showed significantly lower patient satisfaction scores than patients not suffering from these states or symptoms. Statistically significant correlations were found between worry, pain, anxiety and patient satisfaction. The results of both studies (part 1+2) (Müller-Staub, Meer, Briner, Probst & Needham, 2008) are discussed, conclusions drawn and implications for practice and research presented.