Högskolan i Skövde

Background: Pain assessment in persons with dementia is well known as a challenging issue to professional caregivers, because of these patients´ difficulties in verbalising pain problems. Within municipal dementia care in Sweden, pain assessment has become problematic for registered nurses, as they have entered a new role in their nursing profession, from being clinical practitioners to becoming consultant advisers to other health care staff.

Aim: To present municipal registered nurses´ view of pain assessment in persons with dementia in relation to their nursing profession as consultant advisers.

Methods: Purposive sampling was undertaken with 11 nurses invited to participate. Data were collected by focus groups. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data.

Findings: Four categories were identified to describe registered nurses´ view of pain assessment: estrangement from practical nursing care, time consuming and unsafe pain documentation, unfulfilled needs of reflection possibilities, and collaboration and coordination.

Conclusions: The performance of pain assessment through a consultant advising function is experienced as frustrating and as an uncomfortable nursing situation. The nurses feel resistance to providing nursing in this way. They view nursing as a clinical task demanding daily presence among patients to enable them to make accurate and safe assessments. However, due to the consultative model, setting aside enough time for the presence seems difficult to accomplish. It is necessary to promote the quality of systematic routines in pain assessment and reflection, as well as developing professional knowledge of how pain can be expressed by dementia patients, especially those with communication difficulties.

Aims and objectives To interpret certified nursing assistants' perception of pain in people with dementia in nursing care practice. Background Detection and understanding of pain in people with dementia remains a challenge due to their difficulty in verbalising their pain. Nursing assistants provide daily nursing care and therefore play a vital role in pain detection. Nevertheless, pain research from the nursing assistants' perspective is sparse. Design A qualitative approach within the interpretive tradition was adopted. Methods Individual interviews with twelve certified nursing assistants, all working in dementia care, were conducted and interpreted using philosophical hermeneutics. Results Nursing assistants' perception of pain is on three levels. Each level consists of a theme. The first theme Being in the facing phase' refers to the initial perception of the person's expressions. The second theme Being in the reflecting phase' means ability to reflect more deeply on one's perception, together with other colleagues and next of kins. The third theme Being in the acting phase' means perception arising from preventive and protective care focusing on contributing to well-being. The themes served as a basis for comprehensive understanding, where perception of pain arises from closeness, compassion and dialogue based on personhood, accompanied by professional knowledge of pain and dementia. Conclusion Nursing assistants' perception of pain is based on ethical concerns and on their own subjective pain experiences rather than on medical skills. Their perception derives from fundamental values that are important aspects of nursing care. Interdisciplinary solidarity may strengthen cooperation amongst CNAs and RNs to achieve best pain management practice. Relevance to clinical practice Attention to nursing assistants' perception of pain needs to be highlighted when they are front-line staff and have developed important pain detection skills. Their skills are essential complements and must be used in the development of pain management in dementia care practice.