title: Healthcare providers' accuracy in assessing patients' pain: A systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Healthcare providers satisfy an important role in providing appropriate care in the prevention and management of acute and chronic pain, highlighting the importance of providers' abilities to accurately assess patients' pain. We systematically reviewed the literature on healthcare providers' pain assessment accuracy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed and PsycINFO to identify studies addressing providers' pain assessment accuracy, or studies that compared patients' self-report of pain with providers' assessment of pain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  60 studies met the inclusion criteria. Healthcare providers had moderate to good pain assessment accuracy. Physicians and nurses showed similar pain assessment accuracy. Differences in pain assessment accuracy were found according to providers' clinical experience, the timing of the pain assessment, vulnerable patient populations and patients' pain intensity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Education and training aimed at improving providers with poor pain assessment accuracy is discussed especially in relation to those with limited clinical experience (<4 years) or a great deal of clinical experience (>10 years) and those providing care for vulnerable patient populations.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  More research on characteristics that influence providers' pain assessment accuracy and trainings to improve pain assessment accuracy in medical and continuing education may improve pain treatment for patients.
authors.affiliation: US Department of Veterans Affairs, Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research, Boston, MA, USA. Electronic address: Mollie.Ruben@va.gov.
authors.forename: Mollie A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ruben
authors.affiliation: NIVEL (Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research), Utrecht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Mara
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: van Osch
authors.affiliation: Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, Bentley University, Waltham, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Danielle
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Blanch-Hartigan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy*; D002983:Clinical Competence; D000066491:Clinical Decision-Making / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D059408:Pain Management
keywords: Acute pain; Chronic pain; Clinical experience; Pain assessment; Provider accuracy