Original articlePain management in a rheumatology department: a satisfaction survey
Introduction
Quality assurance efforts in the area of pain management consist of a set of principles and methods used to establish pain management protocols within a department, to monitor their application, and to evaluate the benefits they provide to patients [1].
In France, centers for pain evaluation and treatment focus mainly on patients with chronic pain. Pain in postoperative patients is handled by the members of surgical teams, most notably anesthesiologists [2], [3]. Pain management is not evaluated in rheumatology departments, although pain is the most common reason for inpatient rheumatology care.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the quality of pain management in our rheumatology department, using three criteria: pain relief, quality of information, and satisfaction.
Section snippets
Survey
We evaluated satisfaction with pain management in patients admitted to the rheumatology department of the Lille Teaching Hospital, Lille, France, during a 1-month period (March to April) in 1999. All patients admitted to the conventional rheumatology unit during the study period were included in the study. The healthcare staff was not informed of the study. A questionnaire was given to each patient on the day of discharge. The questionnaire items are listed below.
- 1.
Pain severity at admission
Results
From March 1999 to April 1999, 88 patients, 49 women and 39 men, were admitted to the conventional rheumatology unit. Of these, 76 completed the questionnaire. Mean age was 56.8 years for the women and 54.4 years for the men. Reasons for admission included acute and chronic rheumatic conditions: eight patients had infections (septic arthritis or discitis), four had metastatic disease, 24 had chronic inflammatory joint disease, 24 had low back pain with nerve root pain (acute in 12 cases and
Discussion
This survey evaluated pain management in patients admitted to a rheumatology department.
Satisfaction is a subjective feeling that influences behavior and is dependent on the patient’s experience and history. According to expectation theory, the degree of satisfaction expresses the match between what is expected and what is perceived [4]. There are no standardized tools capable of measuring satisfaction accurately. Consequently, both our results and the data in the literature should be
Conclusion
Although the evaluation tool used in this study needs improvement, it provides information that can be used to develop actions aimed at improving analgesic treatment. In this study, it gave additional information on the pain experience of patients, while strengthening relationships among physicians, patients, nurses, and nurse assistants and shedding light on the various factors that affect patient satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
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