LIFE Project Pain Protocol Project
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July, 2001 - Stacie Ogborn, Project Coordinator of the LIFE Project Pain Protocol Facilities Initiative, conducted telephone conference calls with all participating facilities to discuss the progress being made during the first quarter of the project, which ended July 31.
The facilities are working at their own pace to implement improved pain management practices within their organizations. Nearly all have formed inter-disciplinary pain teams, and most are meeting regularly to establish new procedures or to enhance existing ones.
A sampling of comments received from the facilities follows:
- Most, but not all, facilities have expressed satisfaction with the enthusiasm and cooperation demonstrated by nursing staff and other professionals to improve pain management within their organizations.
- A few facilities have expressed frustration with finding a physician champion or champions to lead the charge for improving pain management among the medical staff. Others have experienced relative ease in obtaining "buy-in" from local physicians.
- Most facilities are eager to learn new methods of assessing pain from the other facilities participating in the project. The Project is encouraging a sharing of information among the participants.
- Several facilities have already conducted staff training events, including collaborative sessions with local hospice organizations, use of local experts, and on-site visits by Dr. Robert Twillman of KU Med Center. Others have scheduled staff in-service opportunities for the upcoming months.
- Some of the facilities have commented that subtle improvements to pain management are already noticeable. To the surprise of facility coordinators, these improvements have been achieved, not by drastically overhauling an existing set of practices, but by enhancing or "tweaking" what was there to begin with.
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