Authors (including presenting author) :
Chang CM (1), Ng KY (1), Cheng KY (1), Mao KF (1), Tsang SW (1), Chan MH (1), Cheung KY (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Pain Management Unit, Department of Anaesthesia and Operating Theatre Services, New Territories West Cluster
Introduction :
Most patients experience pain after surgery. An optimal control of post-operative pain plays a crucial role in facilitating patients’ recovery and reducing the complications from severe acute pain. A prompt and appropriate pain assessment of post-operative patients is essential to guide effective acute pain management. A comprehensive “Pain Assessment in PACU” poster was designed to promote and reinforce such pain assessment and its documentation in the Post-Anaesthetic Care Unit (PACU) of the Operating Theatres in the New Territories West Cluster (NTWC).
Objectives :
1) Provide a framework to guide nurses on pain assessment in order to enhance post-operative pain management in PACU
2) Promote the appropriate pain assessment tools for communicable patients, children and non-communicable patients
3) Ensure a standardized practice on assessing, monitoring and documenting post-operative pain in PACU
4) Evaluate the outcome on post-operative pain management in PACU after implementation of the standardized pain assessment practice in the NTWC
Methodology :
Feedback from anaesthetists and PACU nurses revealed that there was lack of standardized practice on post-operative pain assessment and suboptimal pain management in PACU. The issue had been confirmed by an audit of PACU record of post-operative cases in Tuen Mun Hospital (TMH) and Pok Oi Hospital (POH) performed in July 2022. Therefore, a poster including all fundamental items for pain assessment in PACU was designed to provide a framework for pain assessment. This “Pain Assessment in PACU” poster was posted up in TMH, POH, and Tin Shui Wai Hospital (TSH) in August 2022, and accompanied with training talks provided to nurses from the Department of Anaesthesia and Operating Theatre Services (A&OT) in mid- August to November 2022.
Result & Outcome :
By the end of November 2022, a total number of 168 nurses received the training talks on “Pain assessment in PACU” by pain nurses. The attendance rates were 72% in TMH, and 68% in POH and TSH. Among them, all PACU nurses in TMH, and 75% of PACU nurses in POH & TSH received the training talks. An audit will be conducted 6 months after implementation of the standardized pain assessment practice to evaluate the outcome on post-operative pain management in PACU.
