Pain control

People still all too often think that pain is a part of life (after an operation, during an examination...). However, this is not so.

Good pain management is a basic right for everyone and can have a positive effect on the healing process. Therefore, it is important to administer the prescribed painkillers at regular intervals and to give some extra if necessary.

Effective pain relief starts with acknowledging the level of pain the patient is experiencing. Systematic pain evaluation and treatment of the pain phenomenon, as presented in the patient, is an absolute necessity, as is re-evaluation and follow-up. Pain is uniformly reported and recorded by all healthcare providers.

In order to objectively quantify a patient's pain at the hospital, we use the validated pain scales NRS (Numerical Rating Scale), PAINAD (The Pain Assessment IN Advanced Dementia) and CPOT (Critical care Pain Observation Score).

When is pain evaluated and measured?

1. The patient’s pain is evaluated during each admission on the basis of the following questions:

• Do you feel pain?
• What makes the pain better or worse?
• Is the pain related to the reason of your admission?
• How does the pain feel?
• What is the nature of the pain?
• Where do you feel the pain?

The pain is systematically assessed at least once every shift, after every invasive intervention, examination or procedure.

2. If the patient reports the pain (if patient says to be in pain) or the family says the patient is in pain. The family’s input is very important in the case of frail elderly persons with reduced cognitive/communicative abilities.

3. If the healthcare provider observes visible signs of pain in the patient, including any kind of unusual behaviour (change in patterns or habits). In particular, ‘longer’, ‘more frequent’ and ‘stronger’ are possible indications.