Managing pain medications in long-term care: nurses' views

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Gerontology
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Effective pain management is crucial for long-term care (LTC) residents.
• Nurses play a vital role in administering pain medications and assessing resident pain levels.
• Understanding nurses' perceptions is key to improving pain management protocols in LTC settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore nurses' perceptions of their current practices in administering pain medications to LTC residents.
• To identify factors influencing nurses' decisions regarding narcotic administration.
• To pinpoint areas for continuing education to enhance pain management in LTC.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey design was employed.
• Quantitative and open-ended questions were used for data collection.
• 165 nurses from nine LTC homes in southern Ontario, Canada, participated (59% response rate).

Main Results:

• 85% of nurses found the medication administration system adequate for managing resident pain.
• 98% of nurses reported comfort in administering narcotics.
• Nurses' decisions on narcotic administration were influenced by pain assessments, physician orders, diagnosis, patient history, non-narcotic effectiveness, and concerns about dosage errors or addiction.

Conclusions:

• Nurses generally perceive existing pain medication systems and their own comfort with narcotics positively.
• Trust in physicians and pharmacists regarding medication safety is high among nurses.
• Findings indicate a need for targeted continuing education initiatives for nurses in LTC pain management.