J Hosp Palliat Nurs 2021 May 12. Epub 2021 May 12.
Heather Cook, PharmD, is palliative care clinical pharmacist, Medstar Franklin Square Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. Karen Snow Kaiser, PhD, RN, is pain and palliative care coordinator, Quality and Safety Department, University of Maryland Capitol Region Health, Cheverly, MD. Kathryn A. Walker, PharmD, BCPS, CPE, is senior clinical director of palliative care, MedStar Health, Associate Professor, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore, MD Mary Lynn McPherson, PharmD, MA, MDE, BCPS, is professor and executive director, Advanced Post-Graduate Education in Palliative Care, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy.
A comprehensive pain assessment is the first step in safe, effective pain management. Few studies have explored variations of strategies and measures for multidimensional pain assessment education in both verbal and nonverbal patients. In this retrospective cohort study, interprofessional health care students enrolled in a palliative care curriculum completed a pain assessment training, which taught the PQRSTA ("palliating factors, precipitating factors, previous treatments, quality, region, radiation, severity, temporal factors and associated symptoms") mnemonic as a strategy for assessing pain in verbal patients and the Pain Assessment in Advance Dementia and Checklist of Nonverbal Pain Indicators measures for nonverbal patients. Read More