The purpose of this research was to develop and test a tool to measure the quality of nursing care related to pain management that accurately predicts pain outcomes among hospitalized adults with cancer.

Background

• Pain is a common and distressing problem for hospitalized adults.
• In multiple studies, adult patients report satisfaction with care despite reporting moderate to severe pain.
• Improvements in pain care and outcomes have been limited by a lack of adequate tools to measure the quality of care related to pain management.

Key Findings

• Two tools resulted. The PainCQ-Interdisciplinary survey measures partnership with the health care team and comprehensive interdisciplinary pain care. The PainCQ-Nursing survey measured three components of pain care quality: being treated right; comprehensive nursing pain care; and efficacy of pain management.
• The two tools were associated with pain outcomes.
• Results support the reliability and validity of the PainCQ© tool.
• The PainCQ© surveys are appropriate for use in hospital-based quality improvement in oncology and medical-surgical settings and may be particularly helpful in units trying to improve their national survey scores for treatment of pain.