Pain Assessmentûs Tools and Pain Management System in Ramathibodi Hospital

ABSTRACT

Abstract\ \ Keywords\ \ Pain assessment๛s tool, Pain management, Patient๛s knowledge, Painsatisfaction, Work instructionPain is a significant indicator of the quality of care of health care organizations.Patients suffering from pain basically expect that their pain would be alleviated whilehospitalized. However, pain is a complicated phenomenon because it involves subjectivefeeling that is difficult to quantify. When providing care for patients suffering frompain, nurses have to understand the pain in order to respond to patients๛ needsappropriately. In the past, although nurses had recognized the pain problem ofpatients, pain assessment and management were not performed systematically.Department of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, realizes thatdevelopment of a pain management system is essential for quality of care. Thus,a committee working on development of a pain scale, an indicator for assessing painleading to set up a pain management system, has been pointed since 2003. During theyear 2003-2006, a pain management program has been developed and tested in apilot study, then disseminated to utilize in nursing practice for patients sufferingfrom pain at all wards in Ramathibodi Hospital. Therefore, the targeted goal for็Best Practice้ of pain management has been established in 2005, according to thestrategic plan of organization. It has been found that the patients๛ outcomes met theobjectives assessed by quality indicators including patients๛ knowledge about painmanagement, ability to perform activities of daily living, sleep quality, interactionwith others, and satisfaction with pain management by nurses. Also, work instruction(WI) on pain management has been developed and used as a standard guideline inDepartment of Nursing Ramathibodi Hospital.