Do Warmed Blankets Change Pain, Agitation, Mood or Analgesic Use Among Nursing Home Residents?

Pain, agitation, and thermal discomfort are common symptoms of older adults residing in nursing homes. Nonpharmacologic interventions are recognized as a best practice strategy for people living in nursing homes because of their low adverse effect profile and increased evidence of effectiveness. Warmed blankets have not been empirically tested for use in long-term care.

The purpose of this quality improvement project was to describe the use of warmed blankets in a nursing home setting and determine if use was associated with changes in pain, agitation, mood, or analgesic use.

A pretest posttest design was used along with a comparison of intact groups.

The setting was one 160-bed skilled long-term care facility.

There were 141 residents eligible since they did not have a condition that could be worsened by superficial heat.

Warmed blankets were unfolded and placed over residents with pain, agitation, or thermal discomfort. Short-term pain measures included use of the Revised FACES Pain Scale, the PAINAD (Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia) scale, and the Brief Agitation Rating Scale. Long-term measures were taken from the electronic medical record.

Of the 141 eligible residents, 24.1% (n = 34) received a warmed blanket over the 1- month study period. There were statistically significant decreases in both pain level and agitation among baseline, 20 minutes after application, and the subsequent shift assessments (p < .001). There were also long-term changes in the number of pain complaints (p = .040), severity of pain complaints (p = .009), and as-needed analgesic use (p = .011). There were no statistically significant differences between the treated group and comparison group on any long-term measures.

Warmed blankets are a low-cost intervention with a high potential for bringing comfort to nursing home residents.