Research has found that pain care for hospitalised patients over 65 years old is assessment driven and lacks sufficient patient input.
The research found that pain care was hampered due to the lack of appropriate and meaningful pain care provision, and that nurses lacked insight and understanding on the nature of pain for the older person.
Furthermore, for those who come to hospital from residential aged care with dementia, the lack of an advocate and the ability to communicate can hinder pain care further. The study raises questions about the current pain assessment models used and whether pain management needs to be reevaluated.
Nursing Review spoke with lead author Joanne Harmon, from University of South Australia's School of Nursing and Midwifery, to hear more about the study.
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HI everyone, thank you for listening to my interview, here are the articles Harmon, J, Summons, P & Higgins, I inpress, ‘Experiences of the older hospitalised person on nursing pain care: An ethnographic insight’, Journal of Clinical Nursing ( currently available as an early view) and Harmon, J, Summons, P & Higgins, I 2019, ‘Nurses’ culturally mediated practices influencing pain care provision for older people in acute care: Ethnographic study’, Applied Nursing Research, vol. 48, 2019/08/01/, pp. 22-29.