Elderly people are at the risk of both injuries due to falls and cognitive impairment and therefore make up a large percentage of presentations to the emergency department. Pain assessment in these patients can be challenging as cognitive impairment reduces their ability to self-report pain. Studies show that the routine utilization of standardized pain assessment tools can increase analgesic prescribing and potentially reduce wait time for analgesia in the emergency department.
However, no study has identified the frequency of utilization of specific pain assessment tools. There remains a problem of underutilization of appropriate pain assessment tools in the geriatric patient group in the emergency department setting, with evidence to suggest that this is leading to the suboptimal use of analgesics and poorer control of pain. Healthcare professionals can play a role in promoting the…
