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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Management of pain in older people within the nursing home
— a preliminary study | | Author(s) | Nick Allcock, Julie McGarry, Ruth Elkan |
| Journal title | Health & Social Care in the Community, vol 10, no 6, November 2002 |
| Pages | pp 464-471 |
| Keywords | Pain ; Therapeutics ; Nursing homes ; Pilot. |
| Annotation | The prevalence of chronic pain in nursing home residents is between 45% and 80%; however, there are a number of barriers to the identification and management of chronic pain, including sensory impairments in older people themselves and educational deficits among professionals. A pre-piloted postal questionnaire to managers of 121 nursing homes within a geographically defined area had a 56% response rate. Overall, 37% of nursing home residents were identified as experiencing chronic non-malignant pain (lasting longer than 3 months not caused by cancer); and 2% were reported as experiencing chronic malignant pain (lasting more than 3 months caused by cancer). Paracetamol was identified as the most "often" used analgesia for both forms of pain. 69% of nursing homes did not have a written policy on pain management; 75% did not use a standardised pain assessment tool. 44% of nursing homes provided education or training session for qualified staff, and 34% provided this for care assistants. 40% of qualified and 85% of care assistants had no specialist knowledge of pain management in older people. The study confirms the need for appropriate training and education to meet the particular needs of older people. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-021216202 A |
| Classmark | CT7: LL: LHB: 4UC |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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