Multidimensional Approach to Assessing Pain in Hospice Patients

Abstract

Patients are admitted to hospice care with a terminal illness to receive supportive care and management of symptoms, such as pain. An integral part of the nursing role is providing holistic care by assessing the patient\u27s physical, mental, emotional, and overall functional state. To improve quality at end-of-life, a comprehensive assessment of the patient’s pain experience should occur during every visit. Inadequate pain assessment is a local and national problem resulting from the use of unidimensional pain assessment tools, such as the numerical pain rating scale and visual analog scale, which measures generalized pain rather than the overall pain experience. Currently, nurses at a local hospice company use a unidimensional approach to assess pain during routine visits. Literature recommend using a multidimensional pain assessment method to better understand the patient\u27s total pain experience and increase comfort and patient satisfaction. The purpose of this planned project was to develop an evidence-based multidimensional pain assessment approach for hospice patients, including plans for implementation and evaluation