Keywords

best practices, long-term care, management, pain, quality improvement

 

Authors

  1. Long, Carol O. PhD, RN, FPCN
  2. Morgan, Bonnie M. MA, RN, CHPN, FPCN
  3. Alonzo, Tena R. MA
  4. Mitchell, Karen M. BSN, RN
  5. Bonnell, Debra K. LPN, RAC-CT
  6. Beardsley, Melissa E. BS, MGH

Abstract

Pain is often unrecognized and undertreated in long-term-care settings. The Beatitudes Campus Health Care Center created the Campaign Against Pain program to improve pain management for residents with chronic pain and short-stay residents with acute pain. The program included education; onsite consultation; individual work groups composed of staff, management, and residents; and the administrative commitment to address the needs of staff and persons residing in the facility within a quality improvement and best practices framework. Using the Minimum Data Set 2.0 Quality Measures for benchmarking, the impact of the training resulted in a drastic reduction in pain in the facility over five quarters for chronic (1.6%) and post-acute care (8.3%), suggesting that change was embedded and sustained over time. The facility met and exceeded the goals of the project and the Advancing Excellence in America's Nursing Home Campaign.