Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
Volume 40, Issue 5 , Pages 723-733 , November 2010

Nursing Staff, Patient, and Environmental Factors Associated with Accurate Pain Assessment

  • Lisa R. Shugarman, PhD

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
  • ,
  • Joy R. Goebel, RN, PhD

      Affiliations

    • Department of Nursing, California State University School of Nursing, Long Beach, California, USA
  • ,
  • Andy Lanto, MS

      Affiliations

    • Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • ,
  • Steven M. Asch, MD, MPH

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
    • Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • ,
  • Cathy D. Sherbourne, PhD

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
  • ,
  • Martin L. Lee, PhD, MS

      Affiliations

    • Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • ,
  • Lisa V. Rubenstein, MD, MSPH

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
    • Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
  • ,
  • Li Wen, MD

      Affiliations

    • Veterans Administration Long Beach Healthcare System, Long Beach, California, USA
  • ,
  • Lisa Meredith, PhD

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
  • ,
  • Karl A. Lorenz, MD, MSHS

      Affiliations

    • RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California, USA
    • Veterans Administration Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress correspondence to: Karl A. Lorenz, MD, MSHS, Veterans Administration of Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, 11301 Wilshire Boulevard, Code 111-G, Los Angeles, CA 90073, USA.

,Accepted 11 February 2010.

References 

  1. Bergh I, Sjostrom B. A comparative study of nurses’ and elderly patients’ ratings of pain and pain tolerance. J Gerontol Nurs. 1999;25:30–36
  2. Field L. Are nurses still underestimating patients’ pain postoperatively?. Br J Nurs. 1996;5:778–784
  3. Hovi SL, Lauri S. Patients’ and nurses’ assessment of cancer pain. Eur J Cancer Care (Engl). 1999;8:213–219
  4. Puntillo K, Neighbor M, O’Neil N, et al. Accuracy of emergency nurses in assessment of patients’ pain. Pain Manag Nurs. 2003;4:171–175
  5. Bowman JM. Perception of surgical pain by nurses and patients. Clin Nurs Res. 1994;3:69–76
  6. Choiniere M, Melzack R, Girard N, et al. Comparisons between patients’ and nurses’ assessment of pain and medication efficacy in severe burn injuries. Pain. 1990;40:143–152
  7. Van der Does AJ. Patients’ and nurses’ ratings of pain and anxiety during burn wound care. Pain. 1989;39:95–101
  8. Mularski RA, White-Chu F, Overbay D, et al. Measuring pain as the 5th vital sign does not improve quality of pain management. J Gen Intern Med. 2006;21:607–612
  9. Herr K, Titler MG, Schilling ML, et al. Evidence-based assessment of acute pain in older adults: current nursing practices and perceived barriers. Clin J Pain. 2004;20:331–340
  10. Dihle A, Bjolseth G, Helseth S. The gap between saying and doing in postoperative pain management. J Clin Nurs. 2006;15:469–479
  11. McCaffery M, Pasero C. Pain: Clinical manual. St. Louis, MO: Mosby; 2002;
  12. McKinley S, Botti M. Nurses’ assessment of pain in hospitalised patients. Aust J Adv Nurs. 1991;9:8–14
  13. Brockopp DY, Downey E, Powers P, et al. Nurses’ clinical decision-making regarding the management of pain. Int J Nurs Stud. 2004;41:631–636
  14. Dworkin S, Sherman J. Relying on objective and subjective measures of chronic pain: guidelines for use and interpretation. In:  Turk D editors. Handbook of pain assessment. 2nd ed.. New York: The Guilford Press; 2001;p. 619–639
  15. Jensen M, Karoly P. Self-report scales and procedures for assessing pain in adults. In:  Turk D editors. Handbook of pain assessment. 2nd ed.. New York: The Guilford Press; 2001;p. 15–34
  16. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs . Healthcare inspection: Veterans Health Administration Pain Management Initiative. Washington, DC: VA OIG; 2001;
  17. Krebs EE, Carey TS, Weinberger M. Accuracy of the pain numeric rating scale as a screening test in primary care. J Gen Intern Med. 2007;22:1453–1458
  18. Lynn J, Schuster JL, Kabcenell A. Improving care for the end of life: A sourcebook for health care managers and clinicians. New York: Oxford University Press; 2000;
  19. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs . VHA Directive 2003-021: Pain management. Available from http://www1.va.gov/geriatricsshg/docs/PainManagement.pdf2003;Accessed August 8, 2008
  20. McCaffery M, Ferrell BR. Nurses’ knowledge of pain assessment and management: how much progress have we made?. J Pain Symptom Manage. 1997;14:175–188
  21. Cohen MZ, Easley MK, Ellis C, et al. Cancer pain management and the JCAHO’s pain standards: an institutional challenge. J Pain Symptom Manage. 2003;25:519–527
  22. Manias E, Bucknall T, Botti M. Nurses’ strategies for managing pain in the postoperative setting. Pain Manag Nurs. 2005;6:18–29
  23. Randall-David E, Wright J, Porterfield DS, et al. Barriers to cancer pain management: home-health and hospice nurses and patients. Support Care Cancer. 2003;11:660–665
  24. Wells N, Johnson RL, Wujcik D. Development of a short version of the Barriers Questionnaire. J Pain Symptom Manage. 1998;15:294–298
  25. Hall-Lord ML, Larsson BW. Registered nurses’ and student nurses’ assessment of pain and distress related to specific patient and nurse characteristics. Nurse Educ Today. 2006;26:377–387
  26. von Korff M. Epidemiological and survey methods: assessment of chronic pain. In:  Turk D editors. Handbook of pain assessment. 2nd ed.. New York: The Guilford Press; 2001;p. 603–619
  27. Elander J, Marczewska M, Amos R, et al. Factors affecting hospital staff judgments about sickle cell disease pain. J Behav Med. 2006;29:203–214
  28. Kaasalainen S, Coker E, Dolovich L, et al. Pain management decision making among long-term care physicians and nurses. West J Nurs Res. 2007;29:561–580discussion 581–588
  29. Morgan BD. Knowing how to play the game: hospitalized substance abusers’ strategies for obtaining pain relief. Pain Manag Nurs. 2006;7:31–41
  30. Loveman E, Gale A. Factors influencing nurses’ inferences about patient pain. Br J Nurs. 2000;9:334–337
  31. Littler WA, Komsuoglu B. Which is the most accurate method of measuring blood pressure?. Am Heart J. 1989;117:723–728
  32. Punzi HA. Why ambulatory blood pressure monitoring?. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 1998;55(Suppl 3):S12–S16
  33. Callahan CM, Unverzagt FW, Hui SL, et al. Six-item screener to identify cognitive impairment among potential subjects for clinical research. Med Care. 2002;40:771–781
  34. Pain treatment topics: clinical concepts—pain assessment tools. Available from http://pain-topics.org/clinical_concepts/assess.php2008;Accessed July 7, 2008
  35. Foley K. Appraising the WHO analgesic ladder on its 20th anniversary. Cancer Pain Release. Available from http://whocancerpain.bcg.wisc.edu/?q=node/862006;Accessed July 7, 2008
  36. Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI) . Assessment and management of chronic pain. Bloomington, IN: Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement; 2007;87
  37. Dy SM, Asch SM, Naeim A, et al. Evidence-based standards for cancer pain management. J Clin Oncol. 2008;26:3879–3885
  38. Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB. The Patient Health Questionnaire-2: validity of a two-item depression screener. Med Care. 2003;41:1284–1292
  39. Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB, et al. Anxiety disorders in primary care: prevalence, impairment, comorbidity, and detection. Ann Intern Med. 2007;146:317–325
  40. Lowe B, Kroenke K, Grafe K. Detecting and monitoring depression with a two-item questionnaire (PHQ-2). J Psychosom Res. 2005;58:163–171
  41. Lang AJ, Stein MB. An abbreviated PTSD checklist for use as a screening instrument in primary care. Behav Res Ther. 2005;43:585–594
  42. Florin J, Ehrenberg A, Ehnfors M. Patients’ and nurses’ perceptions of nursing problems in an acute care setting. J Adv Nurs. 2005;51:140–149
  43. McWilliams LA, Cox BJ, Enns MW. Mood and anxiety disorders associated with chronic pain: an examination in a nationally representative sample. Pain. 2003;106:127–133
  44. In:  Ferrell BR,  Coyle N editor. Textbook of palliative nursing. New York: Oxford University Press; 2001;
  45. Hardt J, Jacobsen C, Goldberg J, et al. Prevalence of chronic pain in a representative sample in the United States. Pain Med. 2008;9:803–812

PII: S0885-3924(10)00498-7

doi: 10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2010.02.024

Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
Volume 40, Issue 5 , Pages 723-733 , November 2010