The effectiveness of a self-reporting bedside pain assessment tool for oncology inpatients

Abstract

Background: Pain is common during cancer treatment, and patient self-reporting of pain is an essential first step for ideal cancer pain management. However, many studies on cancer pain management report that, because pain may be underestimated, it is often inadequately managed.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of bedside self-assessment of pain intensity for inpatients using a self-reporting pain board.

Methods: Fifty consecutive inpatients admitted to the Oncology Department of Chungbuk National University Hospital were included in this observational prospective study from February 2011 to December 2011. The medical staff performed pain assessments by asking patients questions and using verbal rated scales (VRS) over 3 consecutive days. Then, for 3 additional days, patients used a self-reporting pain board attached to the bed, which had movable indicators representing 0-10 on a numeric rating scale (NRS) and the frequency of breakthrough pain.

Results: Patient reliability over the medical staff's pain assessment increased from 74% to 96% after applying the self-reporting pain board (p=0.004). The gap (mean±standard deviation [SD]) between the NRS reported by patients and the NRS recorded on the medical records decreased from 3.16±2.08 to 1.00±1.02 (p<0.001), and the level of patient satisfaction with pain management increased from 54% to 82% (p=0.002).

Conclusion: This study suggests that the self-reporting bedside pain assessment tool provides a reliable and effective means of assessing pain in oncology inpatients.

FIG. 1.

The self-reporting pain board. (A) The self-reporting pain board uses moving indicators representing a 0–10 numeric rating scale (0 indicates “no pain” and 10 the “worst pain imaginable”) and the frequency of breakthrough pain. (B) Pain assessments were carried out using the self-reporting pain board at the patient bedside on 3 consecutive days after baseline values were obtained from staff-collected data.

FIG. 2.

Study design.

FIG. 3.

Changes in the levels of patient satisfaction with pain management after applying the self-reporting pain board.

FIG. 4.

Numeric rating scales (NRS) gaps between pain scores reported by patients and pain scores from medical records.

FIG. 5.

Numeric rating scale (NRS) changes after using the self-reporting pain board.