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Background: The prevalence of pain in nursing home (NH) residents is high. Insufficiently treated pain reduces quality of life and often leads to negative health consequences. Pain experience in older people can be influenced by physical, psychosocial, emotional, and spiritual factors., Aims: To inform development of NH pain management interventions, we studied residents' pain related perceptions and needs., Design: This was a qualitative descriptive substudy (embedded in ProQuaS, a larger pain project)., Settings: Three Swiss NHs., Participants/subjects: A purposeful sample of eight NH residents with severe pain and no severe cognitive impairment, based on information from the Minimum Data Set., Methods: Eight semistructured interviews were conducted between October and December 2016. The audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed inductively using thematic analysis., Results: Three central themes were identified from the interview data: dealing with major life changes, managing pain, and using formal care. The interviews highlighted the multidimensionality of pain experience in NH residents. In complex pain situations, participants perceived that care workers did not respond adequately to their needs. They had learned to cope with their pain using self-developed strategies and direct consultations with their physicians., Conclusions: The perceived lack of responsiveness may prompt NH residents to bypass care workers with their pain management concerns. This study's findings will inform the development of an educational intervention for NH care workers., (Copyright © 2019 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim: To present a protocol for evaluating an implementation intervention to improve pain management in nursing homes by addressing behaviour change of the care workers., Background: Pain management in nursing homes often is inadequate despite the availability of evidence-based pain management guidelines. Barriers to pain management in nursing homes occur on several levels including lack of knowledge and negative beliefs towards pain of care workers. A comprehensive approach incorporating contextual and behavioural factors is needed to sustainably improve pain management practice., Design: A hybrid type II effectiveness-implementation design comprising an incomplete non-randomized stepped-wedge design and concurrent focus groups is proposed., Methods: A convenience sample of six nursing homes will be included. Implementation of a facility pain management policy will be facilitated by introduction of a facility pain champion and training of all care workers in pain assessment and management. Quantitative outcomes assessed at baseline, after 3 and 6 months include self-efficacy in pain management and attitudes to pain of care workers and functional interference from pain and pain intensity in residents. Feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and implementation strategies and potential barriers to implementation will be explored in focus groups and interviews. (Protocol approved in October 2017)., Conclusion: The proposed intervention implementation has been developed in a participatory approach involving relevant stakeholders. To further improve the contextual fit, development of implementation strategies was guided by the consolidated framework of implementation research. Findings of this research are expected to inform adaptions to the implementation of the intervention., Trial Registration Number: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03471390., (© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: Three main activity patterns have been distinguished in describing chronic pain (avoidance, pacing and persistence). However, their influence on patient outcomes remains a question of debate. This observational study aimed to measure the associations between the avoidance, pacing, and persistence (labelled overdoing) scales of the Patterns of Activity Measure-Pain (POAM-P), self-reported outcomes (pain-interference, depression, functional ability), and observational outcomes (walking, lifting test, physical fitness)., Methods: We conducted an observational study with cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. The data were collected prospectively before and after treatment, which was a 5-week functional rehabilitation including vocational aspects. In addition to self-reported and observational outcomes, patients were asked if they thought they would be able to return to work at 6 months. Analyses were conducted with treatment effect sizes, correlations, and multiple regression models., Results: In this sample (891 patients), we found on average small to moderate improvements for pain-interference and observational outcomes (Cohen's d: 0.37 to 0.64). According to the multivariable models, overdoing was associated with most of the beneficial psychosocial and observational outcomes (β -0.13 to 0.17; all p<0.01). Avoidance was related to negative psychosocial outcomes before treatment (β -0.09 to 0.17; all p<0.015). Pacing, which had moderate correlation with avoidance (r = 0.46), was not associated with most of the outcomes. The feeling that the goal of returning to work was attainable was associated with lower avoidance scores (adjusted OR 0.97; p = 0.024)., Conclusions: The overdoing POAM-P scale probably measures a task-contingent persistence, which appears appropriate in the setting of this study. Persistent behavior was indeed related to small or moderate positive biopsychosocial outcomes, before and after treatment. Moreover feeling able to return to work was related to lower avoidance. Further studies should test the efficacy of motivational strategies that may promote functional task-contingent persistence and reduce avoidance of painful tasks., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Successful pain management represents a daily medical challenge for in- and outpatients. The analysis of Swiss drug unit sales data between year 2000 and 2010 of an array of selected analgesic drugs (non-steroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), paracetamol, metamizole, and opioids) identified current trends. While the overall number of treatment-days with analgesics has markedly and steadily increased and opioid usage may be considered as consistent with recently widened indications to non-tumor pain, the use of NSAIDs (whether COX-2-selective or not) entered stagnation and usage of the least well documented substances (paracetamol and metamizole) has more than decupled. These observations are put into perspective with the findings of a brief literature review aimed at summarizing the latest research developments in the field of analgesic drug therapy.