RESUMEN
JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: O trauma tem importância no âmbito mundial por ser uma das principais causas de morte e invalidez. A dor aguda sempre acompanha os pacientes vítimas de trauma e os profissionais da saúde têm dificuldade em identificá-la e consequentemente controlá-la. O objetivo deste foi caracterizar a percepção e as dificuldades da equipe de enfermagem frente à identificação, quantificação e manuseio da dor dos pacientes vítimas de trauma e treiná-la para sua avaliação e adequado tratamento.MÉTODO: Estudo prospectivo e quantitativo no qual foram incluídos 51 profissionais de enfermagem que atuam em unidade de terapia intensiva destinada à pacientes vítima de trauma. Foi aplicado um questionário com perguntas relacionadas à caracterização dos profissionais e a maneira pela qual eles identificam, quantificame intervêm no tratamento da dor, antes e depois de um curso de capacitação dos profissionais, no qual foram ministradas aulas que abordavam os temas contidos no questionário.RESULTADOS: A maioria dos profissionais incluídos no estudo conhecia o conceito "dor o quinto sinal vital",os instrumentos para quantificar a dor, os medicamentos utilizados no tratamento e seus efeitos adversos, porém com treinamento, o conhecimento sobre a avaliação e tratamento da dor aumentou significativamente.CONCLUSÃO: A maioria dos profissionais de enfermagem tem conhecimento insuficiente sobre a identificação, quantificação e tratamento da dor. O treinamento propiciou a sua atualização, para atuar de forma mais adequada e eficiente no controle e alívio da dor.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Trauma is globally important for being one of the major causes of death and disability. Trauma is also followed by acute pain and health professionals have difficultiesto identify and control it. This study aimed at characterizing nursing teams perceptions and difficulties to identify, quantify and manage pain of trauma patients and at training the nursing team to adequately evaluateand treat it. METHOD: Prospective and quantitative study involving 51 nursing professionals working in an intensive care unit for trauma patients. A questionnaire was applied with questions related to professionals' characterization and the way they identify and treat pain, before and after a qualification course with classes addressing questionnaire themes.RESULTS: Most professionals included in the study knew the concept of "pain as the fifth vital sign", the tools to quantify pain, drugs used to control pain and their adverse effects, however with training, the understanding of pain evaluation and management has significantly increased.CONCLUSION: Most nursing professionals have insufficient knowledge about pain identification, quantification and management. Training has updated the nursing team to act in a more adequate and efficient way to control and relief pain.
RESUMEN
UNLABELLED: The Therapeutic Intervention Scoring System-28 (TISS-28) is an instrument that has been used to measure severity of illness and nursing workload in intensive care units (ICUs). OBJECTIVES: To characterize the severity of illness and nursing workload using the TISS-28 in 11 ICUs of a university hospital in the city of São Paulo, Brazil. METHODS: In a prospective study, data were collected from 271 patients admitted to the ICUs in December 2000 and the patients were followed up for 1 week. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Most of the patients were males (60.0%) and their mean age was 51(+20.6) years. Surgical treatment (66.8%) and admissions from the operating room were predominant. The mortality rate was 25.0% and the average length of stay was 7.7 (+10.4) days. The mean TISS-28 score was 23 (range: 14-32 points). The lowest mean score was observed for patients from the Burn ICU and the highest mean score was obtained for patients from the Liver Transplant ICU. A change in TISS-28 scores was observed in the same ICU over the 7-day study period. Units differed in terms of severity of illness and nursing workload. Patients who died received a higher TISS-28 score than patients who survived (p=0.00). As the nursing staff are the largest economic investment in an ICU, so measuring nursing workload in different ICUs from different centres can contribute to the estimation of nursing staff required according to the specific demands of the units.