Journal Review
Marco CA, Marco AP, Plewa MC, et al. The verbal numeric pain scale: Effects of patient education on self-reports of pain.Acad Emerg Med 2006; 13:853-859.
When ED patients watched an educational video or read a brochure about pain assessment, the patient's self-report of pain often was lower compared to previous self-reports, says this study from St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, OH.
At triage, patients were asked to rate their pain using a numeric rating scale. Patients then were given an educational intervention about pain scales and their use, with 155 patients watching a three-minute videotape and 155 reading a printed brochure, both with identical text. Both were developed by a panel of emergency physicians and anesthesiologists, with the videotaping and editing done by the hospital's audiovisual department. (See the ED's patient education tool.) Immediately afterward, the patients were asked to rate their pain again. Researchers found that a significant percentage of both groups of patients had decreased self-reported pain scores by 2 or more points (28% of the patients who watched the videotape and 23% of the patients who were given the brochure, compared with 5% of patients in a control group). Since pain interventions such as narcotics often are based on pain scores, educational interventions may prevent overmedication and reduce complications and length of stay in the ED, the researchers suggest. They add that the interventions cost very little since the panel of experts volunteered their time and production was done in-house by the hospital's audiovisual department. Videotape reproductions and printing costs were donated by the ED.
"The savings gained in improved communication with patients, increased patient satisfaction, and nursing time could offset these minimal increases in cost," the researchers wrote.
When ED patients watched an educational video or read a brochure about pain assessment, the patient's self-report of pain often was lower compared to previous self-reports, says this study from St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center in Toledo, OH.Subscribe Now for Access
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