The Benefits of More Frequent Pain Assessment in Long-Term Care
- See Pain More Clearly Team
- Mar 15, 2021
- 2 min read
As many as 80% of long-term care residents suffer from pain. And yet this pain is underrecognized and undertreated, at least in part, because people with moderate to severe dementia may not be able to tell us about their pain. Everyone knows that it is difficult for us to communicate to others exactly how we feel when we are in a lot of pain. Imagine how much harder this becomes for those who cannot describe their pain at all because of the deterioration of verbal and other communicative abilities that accompanies dementia.
Over the years we have heard stories of serious problems such as fractures that can go undetected for days and even longer with people suffering in isolation. Regular long-term care pain assessment, using validated and objective methods such as the PACSLAC-II, can lead to earlier recognition of health problems so that these can be treated before they become more severe. Better pain care can improve quality of life for the residents. Our research also suggests that regular pain assessment can lead to improved pain management and even reduce unnecessary medication use.
One of the most interesting findings of our research was that not only is frequent pain assessment good for the patients, but it can also lead to reductions in work stress/burnout among nursing staff who conducted regular pain assessments as compared do those who did not. This may have occurred because better pain assessment/management may be leading to reductions in challenging behaviours in long-term care which would improve the quality of interactions between staff and residents. It is also possible that pain assessment reduces the uncertainty that staff may experience in regards to the most appropriate intervention for a patient; reduced uncertainty leads to reduced stress.
Given that a routine screening pain assessment will typically require less than 5 minutes to complete, we have found that such can be accommodated with good coordination and implementation plans. Extra resources may not even be required when staff and management are willing to work together on improving pain care. Rather than leaving it up to individual clinicians, a coordinated effort with input from both staff members and facility administrators would often be necessary for effective and fully supported facility-wide change.
By Thomas Hadjistavropoulos, Ph.D., FCAHS
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Dr. Thomas Hadjistavropoulos- See Pain More Clearly Team Dr. Hadjistavropoulos is an international leader in the area of pain assessment in dementia and has shown leadership in the promotion of the health sciences at the local, national and international level. He is the Research Chair in Aging and Health, Director of the Centre on Aging and Health and Professor of Psychology at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He served as the 2007 President of the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA).
This post makes an incredibly compelling case for increasing the frequency of pain assessments—especially for non-verbal residents in long-term care where subtle changes can go unnoticed. As a healthcare administration student, I think a lot about how we can implement these kinds of clinical quality improvements, but finding the balance between patient-centered care strategies and the rigid operational metrics of our coursework is a huge challenge. This past semester, the resource allocation and fiscal data modeling for our long-term care management project became so overwhelming that I actually used an accounting coursework help service just to ensure our institutional budget metrics were accurate. Offloading that intense spreadsheet data work was a lifesaver, as it gave me the mental space to focus…
The focus on more frequent pain assessments in long-term care is so vital, especially since consistent monitoring can reveal subtle shifts in a patient’s well-being that might otherwise go unnoticed. As a nursing student, I’ve seen how challenging it can be to balance the clinical data with the human element of care, and it often feels like we are constantly playing catch-up with our documentation and studies. There have been weeks where my workload was so overwhelming that I actually looked into an online science homework help service just to manage my anatomy and physiology modules, allowing me to spend more of my actual clinical hours focused on my patients' comfort rather than worrying about upcoming deadlines. This post is a…
This post highlights such a critical issue, as consistent pain assessment can truly transform the quality of life for residents in long-term care by ensuring their needs aren't overlooked. It’s fascinating to see how healthcare is moving toward these systematic, data-driven approaches to track patient well-being over time. When you look at the backend of how these care systems are designed, it's clear that the workflow between nurses, doctors, and digital health records needs to be perfectly synchronized. I’ve actually talked to health informatics students who find the technical side of this quite challenging, often seeking out uml diagram assignment help to accurately map out the complex interactions and data flows required for these medical monitoring systems. It’s a great reminder…
This insightful blog post on
the benefits of more frequent pain assessment in long-term care
really hits home, especially as someone studying healthcare in the UK. With up to 80% of long-term care residents battling unrecognized pain—often due to dementia barriers—tools like PACSLAC-II enable quick, objective checks that catch issues like fractures early, boosting quality of life and even cutting staff burnout by reducing behavioral challenges and uncertainty. It's eye-opening how a mere 5-minute routine can slash unnecessary meds, ease resident suffering, and foster better staff-resident bonds without extra resources, just smart coordination. For nursing students swamped with essays on this, urgent assignment help UK services can be a game-changer, delivering well-researched papers on pain management just in time t…
This article highlights the critical importance of frequent and structured pain assessment in long-term care, especially for patients with dementia who cannot easily communicate their discomfort. Using validated tools improves early detection, enhances treatment outcomes, and even reduces staff stress by providing clearer clinical guidance. It’s a strong reminder of how better assessment practices improve both patient care and workplace well-being. In a similar way, an undergraduate level course helper can support students by simplifying complex topics, improving understanding, and guiding them toward more effective learning outcomes in their studies.