Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Pain is highly prevalent in all health care settings, and frequently poorly managed. Effective pain management is predicated on a continuous cycle of screening, assessing, intervening and evaluating. Identifying gaps in nurses' self-perceived pain assessment competencies is an essential first step in the design of tailored interventions to embed effective pain assessment into routine clinical practice, and improve patient reported pain outcomes. Yet, few validated instruments focus on the competencies required for undertaking a comprehensive pain assessment, with most focusing on clinician's pain management competencies. ⋯ Preliminary validation of the Self-PAC Scale suggests that it is a helpful instrument for assessing cancer and palliative care nurse' pain assessment competencies.
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Transition from acute to chronic pain often occurs after major lower extremity trauma. Chronic pain has been found to negatively affect daily functioning, including the capacity to work and quality of life. Empirical data and an acceptability assessment were used to develop a self-management intervention aimed at preventing acute to chronic pain transition after major lower extremity trauma (i.e., iPACT-E-Trauma). ⋯ This study outlines the process involved in the development of an intervention to prevent chronic pain in patients with lower extremity trauma. Relevant information is provided to nurses and interdisciplinary teams on a self-management intervention to prevent the transition from acute to chronic pain in the trauma population.
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Clinical Trial
The Effect of Exaggerated Lithotomy Position on Shoulder Pain after Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy.
The exaggerated lithotomy position with the expertise of nurses can be successful solution for the patients who have the postoperative shoulder pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. ⋯ In this study the exaggerated lithotomy position was found to be fast and effective for relieving shoulder pain after laparoscopic cholecystectomy, decreased the need to use additional analgesics and opioids, and, in conjunction with pain control, also contributed to improvements in respiratory functions.
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Pain, depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and constipation were reported in different symptom clusters at different stages of breast cancer. Managing symptom clusters rather than individual symptoms can improve performance status. ⋯ Pain, constipation, depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances were highly prevalent in women with advanced breast cancer. However, they tended to cluster in different symptom clusters. Although some findings were not significant, they all supported the direction of the tested hypotheses. Variations in symptom clusters research, including methodology, instruments, statistical tests, and chosen symptom cluster correlation coefficient, should be addressed.
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Despite clinical guidelines, suboptimal pediatric pain management persists. A local audit found poor guideline compliance. Inadequate knowledge is a recognized barrier to the delivery of evidence-based care. The aim of the study was to investigate nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management at an Australian tertiary pediatric hospital. Design, Setting, Participants and Method: A cross-sectional, descriptive study using the Pediatric Pain Knowledge and Attitudes Questionnaire (Revised) was distributed to 590 nurses in an Australian pediatric hospital. ⋯ Although nurses' overall knowledge and attitude toward pediatric pain were among the highest reported, areas for targeted education using in-service education and workshops were identified alongside a need for exploration of the impediments to providing best care.