Feasibility and Acceptability of a Patient- and Family-Oriented Approach to Pain Assessment in the Intensive Care Unit.
Anmol Shahid, Bonnie G Sept, Stephana J Moss and 7 others
PMID 41867117WHAT IT FOUND
Family caregivers in the ICU could reliably assess patient pain using simple questions and scales.
They agreed with patients on pain presence and intensity. This approach is feasible and acceptable, offering a way to include families in care without disrupting clinical workflow.
Key findings
01Family caregivers and patients showed good agreement on pain intensity scores, with an intraclass correlation coefficient of 0.75.
02All enrolled dyads completed the pain assessments, and no participants reported difficulty with the tasks, confirming feasibility.
03When both provided open-ended comments, 70.6% of dyads described similar pain sources and severity, indicating shared understanding.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study only included patients able to self-report pain, so it does not address assessment for critically ill patients who cannot communicate. Pain assessments were done at rest, not during painful procedures, which may underestimate disagreement in acute situations. The sample was small and from a single centre, limiting generalisability. Most caregivers were female, English-speaking, and highly educated, which may not reflect the broader population.
Declared interests
Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. No conflicts of interest were declared by the authors.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume family caregivers can accurately assess pain for patients who cannot self-report. This study only validated assessments in dyads where the patient could communicate their own pain.