NOPPAIN: a nursing assistant-administered pain assessment instrument for use in dementia

Abstract

The Non-Communicative Patient's Pain Assessment Instrument (NOPPAIN) is a nursing assistant-administered instrument for assessing pain behaviors in patients with dementia. This study investigated the validity of the NOPPAIN. Twenty-one nursing assistants (NAs) with no prior training in using the NOPPAIN watched six videos, each portraying a bed-bound patient with severe dementia receiving personal care from a nursing assistant and responding with a different level of pain intensity. The NAs completed a NOPPAIN rating for each video. The NAs were also presented with each possible pair of videos and asked to identify the video showing the most pain. Results indicated the NAs were quite accurate in their ratings of the videos, providing excellent preliminary evidence on the use of the NOPPAIN for detecting pain in nursing home patients with dementia.