[Assessment of training in the control of acute postoperative pain based on analysis of pretraining and posttraining...

To assess the efficacy of an acute pain unit's training on postoperative pain control for staff of trauma-orthopedic and general surgery departments.

Prospective pretest-posttest study in a tertiary care hospital. Physicians and nurses in the 2 surgical departments were given training sessions that included discussion with visual support and presentation of the acute pain unit's treatment protocols. Outcome measures used were visual analog scale (VAS) scores, patient satisfaction scores, number of days of treatment in accordance with the acute pain unit's protocol, and reasons for stopping treatment. Data for the year before and after the training program were analyzed.

Data for 854 patients before training and 971 after training were analyzed. There were no differences between surgical specialties in the mean number of days of treatment. Nor did patient satisfaction scores differ (trauma-orthopedic surgery, -0.379, P = .352; general surgery, -0.927, P = .177). VAS score differences of less than 0.5 points were found in active and resting pain from the second and third days, respectively. There was improvement in both specialties in terms of the number of patients who completed the treatment initially prescribed by the acute pain unit.

The staff training in postoperative pain control did not affect patient satisfaction, though a small improvement in active and resting VAS scores was noted. The training did have an effect on significantly improving overall compliance with the acute pain unit's treatment protocols.