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Heartbeat: New assessment tool to help clinicians evaluate pain

September 17, 2019

A pain assessment tool aimed at helping clinicians evaluate patient’s pain to decide upon appropriate treatment and intervention has been rolled out across the Trust and incorporated as part of Unity.

The Abbey Pain Assessment tool is a quick and easy tool which is designed to be used with patients who are having difficulty in communicating for a variety of reasons.

This could include because they have had a stroke, cognitive difficulties, Dementia, distress or even a simple language barrier.

The assessment tool covers six areas which can be used to assess the patient, these are:

  • Vocalisation
  • Facial expression
  • Change in body language
  • Behavioural change
  • Physiological change
  • Physical changes

Using these characteristics the patient is scored to determine the level and type of pain that they are likely to be experiencing.

This method makes it easier to assess pain rather than, for example, asking where on a scale of 1-10 a patient feels their pain is, something which would be difficult to explain when there are communication barriers and also something which is highly subjective.

This scale allows appropriate analgesia to be prescribed and also prompts the clinician to return to the patient after an hour to reassess.

Using the tool means that time is saved for the clinician, who can avoid having to try find ways to communicate in order to gather information, which in turn benefits the patient by limiting any potential frustration.

The Abbey tool is named after Dr Jennifer Abbey who is the developer and innovator behind the Abbey Pain Scale (APS) which has been the standard pain assessment tool used for people who cannot verbalise in Australia and parts of the UK since 2004. Pauline Richards, Project Facilitator in Corporate Nursing Services said: “It makes it much easier for colleagues such as nurses and other clinicians, who can use their own knowledge of the patient to assess them. The tool then acts as a resource to guide them on how to effectively manage that patient’s pain”.

Before the introduction of this tool there wasn’t a standardised template that was being used across the Trust to help with pain management.

Pauline is about to go back and complete her first round of audits to check that the assessment tool is being used correctly and effectively, and that it is embedded within the system.

Pauline said:“ With the use of this assessment tool, it doesn’t matter which ward a nurse is on, or which discipline a doctor is working in, the patient will receive a standardised assessment of their pain.”