Postoperative pain management on surgical wards--do quality assurance strategies result in long-term effects on staff member attitudes and clinical outcomes?

Postoperative pain management (POPM) remains suboptimal on surgical wards in many countries despite the availability of effective analgesics, new technologies for drug administration, and clinical practice guidelines for pain management. The aim of the present study was to assess remaining long-term effects on pain management routines, patient experiences, and staff member attitudes in surgical wards more than 3 years after introduction of a quality assurance program for POPM and compare the findings to those of an organization where a corresponding systematic, entire hospital, quality assurance program had not been completed. A descriptive and comparative design, based on survey data from both patients (N = 110) and staff members (N = 51) on urologic surgery wards, was used. Significant (p <.05 to p <.0002) overall relationships were observed for identified shortages in pain management routines (lack of preoperative information, inadequate preoperative discussions on pain management, wait for pain killer) and reported experience of pain, nausea, or vomiting in the postoperative period. The quality assurance program, anesthesia-based pain services using a nurse-based anesthesiologist-supervised model, resulted in more adequate pain management routines, better patient satisfaction with POPM, and increased confidence in pain management among nurses on the surgical wards. On the basis of the present study it may be concluded that more than 3 years after the introduction of a quality assurance program for POPM in surgical wards, the pain management routines, patient experiences, and staff member attitudes have remained markedly improved and in accordance with the aims of accepted clinical practice guidelines for surgical pain management. Copyright 2003 by the American Society of Pain Management Nurses