Assessment of pain and its relief in the stage of pre-hospitalisation

Abstract

Introduction. In the stage of pre-hospitalisation, proper anaesthesia is very important, as moderate or severe pain accounts for a third of all diagnoses. Aim. To investigate and evaluate the pain assessment scales commonly used in practice by the staff of the Kaunas Ambulance Service and the Emergency Department (ED) of the Hospital of LUHS KK in the stage of pre-hospitalisation, and reveal how an appropriate use of pain assessment scales in practice helps to relieve pain. Methodology. A survey of the staff of the KK ED of the Hospital of LUHS KK and Kaunas Ambulance Service was performed as well as the retrospective study of Form 110/A of the patients (pts) treated due to pain in the extremities in 2015–2016. The staff survey included the data about their age, work experience, gender, position, the most commonly used pain assessment scales. Forms 110/A provided information about the changes in patients’ pain scores and its treatment in the stage of pre-hospitalisation. Data analysis was performed using the statistical program SPSS 23.0. The data were considered statistically reliable at p < 0.05. Results. 32 employees of the KK ED, whose average age was 34.81 ± 8.25; and 62 employees of the Kaunas Ambulance Service, whose average age was 46.70 ± 12.88, were surveyed. The average work experience of the staff of the Ambulance Service was 20.95 ± 13.41 years, and that of the ED was 11.30 ± 10.19 years. 100 Forms 110/A of the pts who complained about pain in extremities were selected, 52 female and 48 male. Their average age was 52.77 ± 0.2. The most frequent method to evaluate the pain score in practice used by both the Kaunas Ambulance Service staff (58.1 per cent) and the KK ED staff (68.8 per cent) is the digital pain assessment scale. The odds ratio model revealed that in case the pain is evaluated by the KK ED staff, it is almost 10 times more likely that opioids will be prescribed at a higher[...].