Implementation of a pain management program in a community hospital

Literature reports and staff concerns about management of patients' pain prompted nurses in a 337-bed suburban community hospital to implement a pain management education program. The Task Force tackled physician collaboration, securing resources, revising documentation tools, and designing an educational workshop. Their efforts resulted in the purchase of audiovisual materials for staff and patient use, addition of information about patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) devices to the hospital closed-circuit patient education TV channel, distribution of the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) guidelines to hospital staff, revision of documentation tools, and the implementation of a 4-hour pain management education workshop for all professional nurses. Quality monitoring after the workshop reflected an improvement in nursing documentation of pain management.