Educational intervention in the management of acute procedure-related wound pain: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE

This report describes the pilot testing of an educational intervention to manage acute pain associated with wound care in an outpatient clinic. The intervention included essential elements of pain education identified in the acute pain literature: provision of information; pain measurement; establishing expectations; treatment planning; teaching environment.

METHOD

The intervention was tested on five patients attending a wound clinic for scheduled treatment. Patients were aged 65 years or older and had a history of experiencing pain during treatment procedures such as dressing changes and debridement. Before the intervention, the study nurse gave the patients information about the procedure, discussed strategies they could use to make it as comfortable as possible, and explained how they could use a rating scale to denote any physical and emotional distress.

RESULTS

All patients used the intervention strategies. Three out of five reported reduced pain and/or distress following the intervention.

CONCLUSION

The pilot study supported the use of education as a pain control strategy in wound care and illuminated key methodological issues for further research on this topic.