Pain management policy formulation at a tertiary care teaching institute in India: A prospective observational study
Background: Access to pain management has been recognized as a fundamental human right. Inadequate pain relief hampers the quality of life and has a physiological and psychosocial impact on the patient and caregivers. Inadequate pain relief remains the leading cause of suffering in hospitalized pati...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Book |
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Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications,
2022-01-01T00:00:00Z.
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| Summary: | Background: Access to pain management has been recognized as a fundamental human right. Inadequate pain relief hampers the quality of life and has a physiological and psychosocial impact on the patient and caregivers. Inadequate pain relief remains the leading cause of suffering in hospitalized patients worldwide. Objective: The objective of this article is to provide adequate pain relief to hospitalized patients through proper assessment, treatment, and monitoring of pain by the trained health-care workers through a sustainable and effective institutional pain management policy. Methods: The formulation of pain management policy at a tertiary care teaching institute was conducted in three phases - Phase 1: need assessment by an open-label, uncontrolled, prospective observational study over 1 month period, Phase 2: teaching, training, and awareness of health-care workers, and Phase 3: constitution of the committee at the institute level with the formation of pain resource teams. Results: An open-label, prospective observational study conducted over 1 month revealed that among 814 hospitalized patients, 108 out of 235 (46%) patients in medical and 385 out of 579 (66.5%) patients in the surgical cohort had NRS score of ≥3, implying an inadequate pain relief even at 24 h following medical or surgical intervention, respectively. Conclusion: The provision of effective and adequate pain relief to hospitalized patients requires trained health-care workers and a uniform and structured pain management policy at the institutional level. Recognition and addressal of the barriers and challenges while framing an institutional pain policy is of utmost importance. |
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| Item Description: | 0019-557X 10.4103/ijph.ijph_1769_21 |