Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Feasibility and clinical utility are essential characteristics to consider when it comes to developing or selecting a pain assessment tool to implement into practice. However, these characteristics have not been widely studied with available pain assessment tools in critically ill adults. The objective of this study was to describe nurses' evaluations of the feasibility and clinical utility of the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) in assessing pain in critically ill ventilated adults. ⋯ On the other hand, six nurses mentioned that they were already sensitive to nonverbal cues of pain before the introduction of the CPOT. In conclusion, the CPOT is a valid behavioral pain scale, which has been suggested by experts in recent critical reviews. So far, the CPOT is being used for research purposes and has been implemented into clinical practice of various health care centers of North America.
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Opioid therapy has been shown to decrease pain intensity, restore levels of function, and improve quality of life for adults with chronic pain. Even so, opioids are rarely used as a long-term treatment option, and the prescription of opioid analgesics for managing chronic nonmalignant pain has remained a highly debated treatment modality. This ongoing debate has resulted in a stigma being associated with both the treatment modality and those individuals receiving it. ⋯ Overall, the data reflected that these individuals encounter much stigma surrounding their pain management regimen, and that the routine course of maintaining that regimen is fraught with barriers. These barriers arise from family, the health care system, and society at large. Awareness of the life-enhancing benefits of opioid therapy in adults with chronic nonmalignant pain, as well as the stigma and barriers that they encounter, will enable clinicians to intervene appropriately and to act as advocates on behalf of adults using chronic opioid therapy.
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A role delineation study, or job analysis, is a necessary step in the development of a quality credentialing program. The process requires a logical approach and systematic methods to have an examination that is legally defensible. There are three main phases: initial development and evaluation, validation study, and development of test specifications. ⋯ The pharmacologic domain received the highest mean rating on consequence. The reliability of all scales was 0.95 or higher, which indicated that the questionnaire consistently measured what it was intended to measure. The quality of the questionnaire is an indicator that certification is one measure of nursing excellence.
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Pain is the leading reason individuals seek emergency care. Studies have concluded that acute pain conditions are underevaluated and undertreated in the emergency department (ED). There is a paucity of information about how the severity of pain influences the time spent in the ED before being seen by a physician. ⋯ Given the sample size, we feel there is adequate power to detect the effect of pain in determining the length of waiting time to see a physician if it were present. In addition, African Americans had a statistically significant longer wait (15.29 minutes) than Whites. The effect of race might be interpreted as another example of health disparities or could be a hospital-level effect which was not examined within this model.