Member News Releases
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
June 6, 2007
Pain assessment research project awarded top prize at national conference
Helena Stanaitis, MSN, RN, an instructor at Saint Anthony College of Nursing worked with Trudy DeWaters, DNSc, RN, and Karen Sikorski, MS, RN, to research a pain assessment tool to measure its success at assessing pain in older adults. The results were presented in a poster titled “Is the PAINAD (Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia) a Valid and Reliable Tool to Use to Assess Pain in Hospitalized Post-surgical Older Adults with Hip Fracture?” The study, presented during the National Association of Orthopedic Nurses 27th Annual Congress held in St. Louis, was awarded first place.
The poster study compared the physical observation of patients’ pain to the traditional self-report pain assessment. A key to collecting valid data was the cooperation of Carol King, RN, her staff of nurses and Howard Weiss, MD, director for pain services.
The results of the study provide evidence for the validity and reliability of the PAINAD with post surgical adults. More importantly it offers an alternative to tools that can be improved upon and make recovery easier for those we serve.
Sikorski, a clinical nurse specialist for pain management, formerly worked at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center. DeWaters is an associate professor of nursing at North Park University. She was the lead investigator for the study.
Regionally and professionally accredited, Saint Anthony College of Nursing is a Catholic college that prepares students to become caring, professional nurses in acute care and ambulatory settings in beginning and advanced roles of the profession. Undergraduate students are admitted to the College of Nursing BSN program following the completion of 64 hours of lower division credits from a regionally accredited college of university. RNs with a bachelor’s degree may select one of three MSN tracks: nurse education, clinical nurse leader, and clinical nurse specialist.