Process | Actions | |
---|---|---|
1 | Pain assessment | Using C-PAINAD for pain assessment |
*2a | Score verification | Investigating possible causes of pain (such as injury or pain-related diagnosis), obtaining self-reports if at all possible by asking simple yes/no pain questions to participants, getting information from surrogates, direct contact nurses, and so on |
3 | Score interpretation | 0-1 = no pain; 2-3 = mild pain; ≥ 4 = moderate pain or above |
4 | Pain-relieving interventions | Stage one (Pain score > 1): |
Initiating pain-minimizing and caregiving guidelinesa | ||
Stage two (Pain score > 4): | ||
Non-pharmacological treatments: hot therapy, cold therapy, TENS, massage, and so on | ||
- Consulting in-house physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nurses about the selection of treatment(s) | ||
- Pharmacological treatments: analgesic trial | ||
- Administering regular/‘if needed’ (PRN) analgesic medications 30 minutes before pain-triggered nursing procedures | ||
- When no analgesic has been prescribed, discussing with resident’s physician whether or not to prescribe analgesics | ||
5 | Evaluation and continued monitoring | Monitoring the effectiveness of the implemented interventions by C-PAINAD |
- Decreased pain score - continued monitoring | ||
- If pain-related behavior persists - modify interventions | ||
6 | Documentation | All pain scores and pain treatments administered to participants must be recorded on the pain chart |
2b | *Verification - no evidence indicates pain | - Attempting to interpret meaning of behavior with help of caregivers who are familiar with the residents |
- Ensuring basic needs are met |