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Pain management
Quantitative study – other
Nurse-initiated analgesia improves patients' pain experience: time for change?
  1. Anne-Maree Kelly
  1. Joseph Epstein Centre for Emergency Medicine Research at Western Health, Sunshine Hospital, St Albans, Victoria, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Anne-Maree Kelly
    Director, Joseph Epstein Centre for Emergency Medicine Research at Western Health, Sunshine Hospital, Furlong Road, St Albans, VIC 3021 Australia; anne-maree.kelly{at}wh.org.au

https://doi.org/10.1136/ebn.2011.100146

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    Commentary on: Muntlin A, Carlsson M, Säfwenberg U, et al. Outcomes of a nurse-initiated intravenous analgesic protocol for abdominal pain in an emergency department: a quasi-experimental study. Int J Nurs Stud 2011;48:13–23OpenUrlCrossRefPubMedWeb of Science.

    Implications for practice and research

    • ▪ With appropriate training and safeguards, nurse-initiated analgesia should be more broadly adopted for treatment of emergency department (ED) patients with abdominal pain. Further research is warranted investigating barriers to early analgesia administration in ED.

    • ▪ Research is warranted comparing different analgesia protocols for safety and effectiveness.

    • ▪ Research should investigate the safety and effectiveness of analgesia initiated at triage.

    Context

    Pain is a very common problem in EDs. There is convincing evidence that treatment of pain in the ED is suboptimal, in timeliness and adequacy of pain control.1 Contributors to this failure include myths regarding masking of symptoms, historical models of care where analgesia …

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    Footnotes

    • Competing interests A-MK has conducted and published research in the area of pain management and nurse-initiated analgesia protocols. She has also been a member of NHMRC working group on analgesia in ED. She has contributed to three books on acute pain management. She has no commercial or funding conflicts of interest to declare.