Pain Assessment Clinical Practice Improvement: An Educational Approach in the Home Healthcare Setting

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Healthcare Education
• Pain Management

Background:

• Pain is recognized as the fifth vital sign, yet challenges persist in its assessment and management in older adults.
• Effective pain assessment requires clinicians' knowledge, training, experience, and awareness of potential biases.
• Home healthcare clinicians face unique difficulties in addressing pain in geriatric populations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop, implement, and evaluate an online learning module aimed at improving home healthcare clinicians' knowledge of pain.
• To assess the effectiveness of e-learning in enhancing pain assessment and management skills among home healthcare professionals.
• To identify factors influencing learning outcomes in pain management education for clinicians.

Main Methods:

• A quasi-experimental, one-group pretest-posttest design was employed.
• Ninety-four home healthcare clinicians volunteered, with 54 completing the two-part online learning module and surveys.
• Statistical analysis compared pretest and posttest scores to evaluate knowledge improvement.

Main Results:

• Mean posttest scores (58.7%) were significantly higher than pretest scores (50.7%), indicating improved knowledge (p=0.003).
• The most substantial learning gains were observed in participants with lower initial knowledge levels.
• Years of clinical experience correlated with pretest scores but did not significantly impact posttest outcomes.

Conclusions:

• E-learning is a viable and effective educational strategy for enhancing home healthcare clinicians' understanding of pain.
• The online module demonstrated success in improving pain knowledge, particularly benefiting clinicians with foundational knowledge gaps.
• Targeted educational interventions can address specific learning needs to improve pain care quality in home healthcare settings.