The effect of educational intervention using behavioral pain scale to diagnose pain and relief care in patients admitted to the intensive care unit

BACKGROUND: Considering that more than half of the patients hospitalized in the intensive care unit (ICU) experience pain, for this reason, diagnosis, management, and relief of pain are very important in this department. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this intervention study, nurses working in the ICU were included and the study educational intervention was held in the field of Behavioral Pain Scale (BPS) tool. Then, the score of the BPS tool was compared before and after the intervention. Educational interventions included the explanation and training of the BPS tool. The explanations given included teaching the dimensions of the BPS tool, how to complete the tool and score it, the difference between the BPS tool and other conventional methods of pain assessment in the ICU department, how to interpret the results of the BPS tool, and perform palliative interventions in the field of pain control. The instruments used included the Glasgow Coma Scale, DSM-IV Scale, and BPS. Data analysis was done using SPSS16 software, t-test, and analysis of variance tests. RESULTS: The results showed that the implementation of the training program had improved the scores obtained by nurses in all three dimensions of the BPS questionnaire. In all aspects of the questionnaire, the overall pain score of the patients after the implementation of the training was higher than the score before the implementation of the training (P = 0.000). On the other hand, there was no significant difference in the score before and after the implementation of the training in the third stage of pain assessment in the mechanical ventilation dimension (P = 0.22). CONCLUSION: Considering the effect of the educational intervention on improving the pain identification score and providing palliative care in patients hospitalized in the ICU, it is suggested that a suitable educational program be included in the nursing bachelor’s curriculum.