New Guidelines Help Rural Pain Centers Better Treat Patients

New guidelines, published in Pain Management Nursing, aim to assist physicians more effectively treat patients’ pain in rural community settings, where there is a lack of comprehensive pain outcome evaluation programs (CPOEPs).

“If widely adopted, the guidelines have the potential to standardize outcomes assessment in multiple rural pain clinics across the nation. Standardized pain outcomes can then be used to evaluate and improve practice outcomes in rural pain clinics through various future QI [quality improvement] initiatives by rural clinicians,” said study researcher John Maye, PhD, CRNA, the fellowship director of advanced pain management at the University of South Florida College of Nursing, in Tampa.

Upcoming ASRA Guidelines Address Infection Prevention in Regional Anesthesia

Enhanced Recovery Roundtable: 5 Questions for 5 Experts

Many large medical centers and pain clinics have already developed guides and/or tools that support CPOEPs in an effort to better treat patients.

The directors of the American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) selected 12 AANA members to form the Nonsurgical Pain Management Advisory Panel who utilized the Delphi model to achieve consensus on pain recommendations (Pain Manag Nurs 2024 Apr 11. doi:10.1016/j.pmn.2024.03.006). Items achieving more than 70% agree/strongly agree were kept; items with less than 70% disagree/strongly disagree were rejected.
The panel agreed on the following recommendations in rural settings:

use of the numerical rating scale for pain severity and when recording pain severity and functional pain
outcomes on each office visit and before/after each intervention;
use of the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating Scale as a suitable instrument when literacy or communication pose a barrier but not as a primary assessment;
use of the Brief Pain Index-Short Form for functional outcome measures;
use of the Oswestry Disability Index as a functional outcome measure; and
pain reassessment being performed within 14 days of intervention.

These recommendations were made to address the unique characteristics and circumstances in rural settings that “preclude the use of urban-centered comprehensive pain outcome evaluation programs, such as limited resources for providers and patients, and concerns with costs for transportation to and from appointments,” Maye said.

—Myles Starr

Maye reported no relevant financial disclosures.

Practice Management

New Guidelines Help Rural Pain Centers Better Treat Patients

Related Content

Related Content