Monitoring and improving pain management practices. A quality improvement approach.
The development of a multidisciplinary pain management committee is a critical step in monitoring and improving pain management practices. The systematic evaluation of the quality of pain management using the principles of QI establishes a process that can lead to improvements in the care that patients receive. Clinicians need to develop a 1- to 2-year plan to improve the quality of pain management. Changes in clinicians' behaviors occur slowly; thus, members of pain management committees should not become discouraged but continue to move forward one step at a time.
Miaskowski
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Department of Physiological Nursing, University of California San Francisco, 94143-0610, USA. chris.miaskowski@nursing.ucsf.edu
D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D010146:Pain / Q000517:prevention & control*; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D016730:Program Development; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D017749:Total Quality Management / Q000379:methods*; D014481:United States