Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patients
Since pain perception is highly subjective and culturally mediated, its objective evaluation remains difficult. Nevertheless, pain measurement should ideally be a part of the assessment of patients in order to plan adequate pain relief. Several scales have been proposed for pain measurement, being t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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PAGEPress Publications
2018-12-01
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| Series: | Emergency Care Journal |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.pagepressjournals.org/index.php/ecj/article/view/7787 |
| _version_ | 1828399260806152192 |
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| author | Gianfranco Cervellin Ivan Comelli Andrea Bellone Fabrizio Giostra Nicoletta Acierno Michele Mitaritonno Ciro Paolillo Fabrizio Mastroianni Matteo Pistorello Gianni Rastelli Giorgio Ricci Andrea Tenci Guido Caironi |
| author_facet | Gianfranco Cervellin Ivan Comelli Andrea Bellone Fabrizio Giostra Nicoletta Acierno Michele Mitaritonno Ciro Paolillo Fabrizio Mastroianni Matteo Pistorello Gianni Rastelli Giorgio Ricci Andrea Tenci Guido Caironi |
| author_sort | Gianfranco Cervellin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Since pain perception is highly subjective and culturally mediated, its objective evaluation remains difficult. Nevertheless, pain measurement should ideally be a part of the assessment of patients in order to plan adequate pain relief. Several scales have been proposed for pain measurement, being the numerical rating scale (NRS) the most widely used, often at triage time. NRS have demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity, in post-operative medicine and in oncologic pain, but data in the Emergency Departments (EDs) are poor. The aim of this study is to evaluate the Emergency Nurses’ (ENs) perception about the reliability of NRS in the triage process. A questionnaire based on 11 items was designed and subsequently administered to a large number of ENs in several EDs in Northern and Central Italy. 301 questionnaires were filled out and returned. The majority declares using NRS scale to measure pain (item 2, mode = 4, mean = 3.8), and attributing priority code based on NRS value (item 3, mode = 4, mean = 3.4). In general, triage nurses believe that NRS is only indicative and that their judgement matters (item 4, mode = 4, mean = 3.2). The vast majority of triage nurses do believe that the patients will indicate a fake higher NRS value with the aim to get a more urgent code (item 5, mode = 5, mean = 4), while only a small minority expects that patients would underestimate their NRS for fear of penalizing more urgent patients. Very few believe that such scale underestimates the patients’ condition, while the majority is ambivalent about whether such scale overestimates it. In conclusion, NRS confirms to be a potentially valuable tool for pain evaluation at triage time, but many nurses express some doubts on its reliability, and will attribute the triage code mainly basing on their own judgement. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T09:13:50Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-cfe51c3d94a249738b42ecf8ce408258 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1826-9826 2282-2054 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T09:13:50Z |
| publishDate | 2018-12-01 |
| publisher | PAGEPress Publications |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Emergency Care Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-cfe51c3d94a249738b42ecf8ce4082582022-12-22T01:54:55ZengPAGEPress PublicationsEmergency Care Journal1826-98262282-20542018-12-0114310.4081/ecj.2018.7787Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patientsGianfranco Cervellin0Ivan Comelli1Andrea Bellone2Fabrizio Giostra3Nicoletta Acierno4Michele Mitaritonno5Ciro Paolillo6Fabrizio Mastroianni7Matteo Pistorello8Gianni Rastelli9Giorgio Ricci10Andrea Tenci11Guido Caironi12Emergency Department, University Hospital of Parma, ParmaEmergency Department, University Hospital of Parma, ParmaEmergency Department, Niguarda Hospital, MilanEmergency Department, Hospital of Fermo, FermoEmergency Department, S. Paolo Hospital, SavonaEmergency Department, Hospital of Cosenza, CosenzaEmergency Department, Spedali Riuniti University Hospital, BresciaEmergency Department, Hospital of Aosta, AostaEmergency Department, Hospital of Treviso, TrevisoEmergency Department, Hospital of Vaio, FidenzaEmergency Department, University Hospital of Verona, VeronaEmergency Department, Girolamo Fracastoro Hospital, San Bonifacio (VR)Emergency Department, Local Health Agency, ComoSince pain perception is highly subjective and culturally mediated, its objective evaluation remains difficult. Nevertheless, pain measurement should ideally be a part of the assessment of patients in order to plan adequate pain relief. Several scales have been proposed for pain measurement, being the numerical rating scale (NRS) the most widely used, often at triage time. NRS have demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity, in post-operative medicine and in oncologic pain, but data in the Emergency Departments (EDs) are poor. The aim of this study is to evaluate the Emergency Nurses’ (ENs) perception about the reliability of NRS in the triage process. A questionnaire based on 11 items was designed and subsequently administered to a large number of ENs in several EDs in Northern and Central Italy. 301 questionnaires were filled out and returned. The majority declares using NRS scale to measure pain (item 2, mode = 4, mean = 3.8), and attributing priority code based on NRS value (item 3, mode = 4, mean = 3.4). In general, triage nurses believe that NRS is only indicative and that their judgement matters (item 4, mode = 4, mean = 3.2). The vast majority of triage nurses do believe that the patients will indicate a fake higher NRS value with the aim to get a more urgent code (item 5, mode = 5, mean = 4), while only a small minority expects that patients would underestimate their NRS for fear of penalizing more urgent patients. Very few believe that such scale underestimates the patients’ condition, while the majority is ambivalent about whether such scale overestimates it. In conclusion, NRS confirms to be a potentially valuable tool for pain evaluation at triage time, but many nurses express some doubts on its reliability, and will attribute the triage code mainly basing on their own judgement.https://www.pagepressjournals.org/index.php/ecj/article/view/7787painnumeric rating scaletriageemergency department |
| spellingShingle | Gianfranco Cervellin Ivan Comelli Andrea Bellone Fabrizio Giostra Nicoletta Acierno Michele Mitaritonno Ciro Paolillo Fabrizio Mastroianni Matteo Pistorello Gianni Rastelli Giorgio Ricci Andrea Tenci Guido Caironi Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patients Emergency Care Journal pain numeric rating scale triage emergency department |
| title | Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patients |
| title_full | Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patients |
| title_fullStr | Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patients |
| title_full_unstemmed | Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patients |
| title_short | Multicenter survey on emergency nurses’ perception of Numerical Rating Scale reliability at triage time in adult Emergency Department patients |
| title_sort | multicenter survey on emergency nurses perception of numerical rating scale reliability at triage time in adult emergency department patients |
| topic | pain numeric rating scale triage emergency department |
| url | https://www.pagepressjournals.org/index.php/ecj/article/view/7787 |
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