[The importance of outcome indicators for pain control and their relationship to nursing actions].
Pain control is an aspect of patient care directly related to nursing competency and actions. Effective pain control, objectively evaluated according to nursing outcomes, is evidence of humane and high-quality care. The value of nursing outcome assessment increases when important and nursing-related outcome indicators are applied. The aim of this study was to analyze nursing outcomes and their indicators for pain control, investigating the importance and relationship of indicators to nursing actions in nursing and supportive treatment. Content validity and nursing sensitivity of pain control nursing outcomes were additionally measured.


METHODS
The study was performed in 13 nursing and supportive treatment hospitals; 128 nurses were enrolled. The response rate was 63.3%. Three nursing outcomes of pain control were analyzed: Pain: Adverse Psychological Response, Pain: Disruptive Effects, and Pain Level. A list of 53 indicators for pain control outcomes was made from the Nursing Outcomes Classification, 2004. Cronbach alfa was estimated for each class of indicators. Importance of indicators and their relationship with nursing actions were measured using the Likert scale. Content validity and nursing sensitivity were estimated with a modified Fehring technique (Fehring, 1987). For ethical considerations, approval of the National Committee on Bioethics was obtained. The Center for Nursing Classification and Clinical Effectiveness in the University of Iowa (USA) provided permission to use the 3rd edition of the NOC Use survey.


RESULTS
The importance of each indicator of pain control nursing outcome was significant, i.e., ≥0.6. Out of the 53 studied indicators, 38 (71.7%) were strongly related to nursing action, and the remaining indicators were moderately related. There was a strong positive correlation (Pearson r=0.835; P=0.000) between the content validity and nursing sensitivity of pain control nursing outcomes.


CONCLUSIONS
The study revealed the three most important indicators for pain control nursing outcome assessment that are directly related to nursing competency and actions in nursing and supportive treatment.
Department of Nursing and Care, Kaunas University of Medicine, Eiveniu 2, 50009 Kaunas, Lithuania. rikolga@hotmail.com
Olga
O
Riklikiene
Arvydas
A
Seskevicius
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D008097:Lithuania; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010146:Pain / Q000150:complications / Q000451:nursing* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D019984:Quality Indicators, Health Care; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome