Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Pain resource nurses (PRNs), who act as pain management coaches or mentors for their colleagues, can contribute to effective pain management. The PRN's role has not been well evaluated in the context of pediatric nursing. Therefore, the objective of this study was to examine the PRN's role in a pediatric setting and, more specifically, to describe the role in terms of the activities PRNs engage in, the challenges they face, and the supports that help them fulfill their role. ⋯ In addition, the PRNs faced challenges, including feeling disappointed when their expectations for better pain management were not met, experiencing difficulty fitting the activities into their busy workdays, facilitating their colleagues' improved pain management without also alienating them, and maintaining their enthusiasm and energy for the role. Pediatric nursing staff can effectively fill the role of the PRN. The role is multifaceted, and maintaining the role required commitment and enthusiasm on the part of the nurses, as well as commitment by their related institutions.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Tailoring cognitive-behavioral treatment for cancer pain.
Though it has been shown that cancer patients report cognitive, behavioral, and physiologic responses to pain, little attention has been paid to the benefits of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) protocols tailored to patient characteristics. To determine whether a profile-tailored CBT treatment program was more effective than either standard CBT or usual care in changing outcomes for patients with cancer-related pain, 131 patients receiving treatment at four sites were randomly assigned to standard CBT, profile-tailored CBT, or usual care. CBT patients attended five 50-minute treatment sessions. ⋯ Compared to profile-tailored CBT patients, standard CBT patients showed greater improvement at six-months post-intervention with less average pain, less pain now, better bowel patterns, lower summary symptom distress, better mental quality of life, and greater improvement in Karnofsky performance status; usual care patients showed little change. More research is needed to refine the matching of cognitive-behavioral treatments to psychophysiologic patient profiles, and to determine a treatment period that does not burden those patients too fatigued to participate in a five-week program. Delivery of CBT by home visits, phone, or Internet needs to be explored further.
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Chronic pain is a significant problem among older adults. Undertreated or poorly managed pain can affect the physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being of older people. Several researchers have found that individuals turn to a wide array of cognitive and behavioral coping strategies when experiencing high levels of chronic pain. ⋯ Findings from this study support prior research that suggests older people report using a repertoire of pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic strategies to manage chronic pain. Older women and older people of minority racial background reported using religious coping strategies to manage their pain more often than did older Caucasian men. Older women also reported using diversion and exercise significantly more often than did older men.
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The purpose of this study, conducted in three phases, was to develop a clinically useful observational tool (i.e., the Pain Assessment Checklist for Seniors With Limited Ability to Communicate [PACSLAC]) to assess pain in seniors with severe dementia. In Phase 1, professional caregivers of seniors with severe dementia were interviewed in order to generate a list of pain-related behaviors that are characteristic of care recipients living in long-term-care facilities. Based on a systematic examination of interview transcripts by experienced researchers and an independent coder, a behavioral checklist (i.e., the initial version of the PACSLAC) was developed. ⋯ Following an item analysis, the subscales of the PACSLAC (Social/Personality/Mood Indicators, Facial Expressions, Activity/Body Movement, and Physiological Indicators/Eating/Sleeping Changes/Vocal Behaviors) were found to be internally consistent. Phase 3 focused on a preliminary validation of the PACSLAC. Analyses suggest that the PACSLAC discriminated among pain events (during which there was a clear and recognizable cause for the patients' pain), events during which patients were experiencing nonpainful distress, and situations during which patients were calm.