Original ArticlePain Prevalence Study in a Large Canadian Teaching Hospital. Round 2: Lessons Learned?
Section snippets
Study Design
The study was a cross-sectional (prevalence) study of hospitalized patients’ pain experience. The Research Ethics Board renewal was obtained in July 2007, and the study occurred on November 21, 2007.
Methods
Approximately 6 months before the study, investigators approached the director of nursing and outlined the support that would be necessary to improve on the quality of the 2006 study. The investigators requested and received financial support from the corporate nursing budget to pay for supplies
Demographics
Two hundred forty-two patients met the inclusion criteria. Unfortunately, 75 patients were not approached owing to time constraints. Of the 167 patients approached, 98 consented to participate (58.1% response rate; Fig. 1). The mean age of participants was 62.7 years (range 19-88 years), and 52% were female. The mean number of days in the hospital was 8.23 days (range 1-49 days). For patients on surgical units, the mean number of days after surgery was 4.96 (range 0-33 days [0 = awaiting
Discussion
Overall, the 2007 study was deemed to be a success by the investigators. Compared with the 2006 study, the investigators felt more organized during the planning and implementation phases in 2007. Several factors contributed to this: 1) The investigators had an entire year to prepare for the second study; 2) careful notes were taken at a debriefing session after the 2006 study and the “lessons learned” were incorporated; 3) having the extra human resources volunteered by the NC was critical to
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful for the statistical support and guidance provided by Alex Kiss, biostatistician, and Marko Katic, biostatistician, from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences. The authors also thank the members of the Nursing Council for their ongoing support of this study.
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