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Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT): an observational study of physician-documented pain assessment in 45 intensive care units in the United Kingdom

Kemp, HI; Bantel, C; Gordon, F; Brett, SJ; Laycock, HC; (2017) Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT): an observational study of physician-documented pain assessment in 45 intensive care units in the United Kingdom. Anaesthesia , 72 (6) pp. 737-748. 10.1111/anae.13786. Green open access

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Abstract

Pain is a common and distressing symptom experienced by intensive care patients. Assessing pain in this environment is challenging, and published guidelines have been inconsistently implemented. The Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT) study aimed to evaluate the frequency and type of physician pain assessments with respect to published guidelines. This observational service evaluation considered all pain and analgesia‐related entries in patients’ records over a 24‐h period, in 45 adult intensive care units (ICUs) in London and the South‐East of England. Data were collected from 750 patients, reflecting the practice of 362 physicians. Nearly two‐thirds of patients (n = 475, 64.5%, 95%CI 60.9–67.8%) received no physician‐documented pain assessment during the 24‐h study period. Just under one‐third (n = 215, 28.6%, 95%CI 25.5–32.0%) received no nursing‐documented pain assessment, and over one‐fifth (n = 159, 21.2%, 95%CI 19.2–23.4)% received neither a doctor nor a nursing pain assessment. Two of the 45 ICUs used validated behavioural pain assessment tools. The likelihood of receiving a physician pain assessment was affected by the following factors: the number of nursing assessments performed; whether the patient was admitted as a surgical patient; the presence of tracheal tube or tracheostomy; and the length of stay in ICU. Physician‐documented pain assessments in the majority of participating ICUs were infrequent and did not utilise recommended behavioural pain assessment tools. Further research to identify factors influencing physician pain assessment behaviour in ICU, such as human factors or cultural attitudes, is urgently needed.

Type: Article
Title: Pain Assessment in INTensive care (PAINT): an observational study of physician-documented pain assessment in 45 intensive care units in the United Kingdom
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/anae.13786
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/anae.13786
Language: English
Additional information: © 2017 The Authors. Anaesthesia published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: critical care; intensive care unit; pain assessment; pain terms; physicians
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Div of Surgery and Interventional Sci > Department of Surgical Biotechnology
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10053893
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