title: Painful Discrimination in the Emergency Department: Risk Factors for Underassessment of Patients' Pain by Nurses.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Unrelieved acute musculoskeletal pain continues to be a reality of major clinical importance, despite advancements in pain management. Accurate pain assessment by nurses is crucial for effective pain management. Yet inaccurate pain assessment is a consistent finding worldwide in various clinical settings, including the emergency department. In this study, pain assessments between nurses and patients with acute musculoskeletal pain after extremity injury will be compared to assess discrepancies. A second aim is to identify patients at high risk for underassessment by emergency nurses.
  
  
  METHODS
  The prospective PROTACT study included 539 adult patients who were admitted to the emergency department with musculoskeletal pain. Data on pain assessment and characteristics of patients including demographics, pain, and injury, psychosocial, and clinical factors were collected using questionnaires and hospital registry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Nurses significantly underestimated patients' pain with a mean difference of 2.4 and a 95% confidence interval of 2.2-2.6 on an 11-points numerical rating scale. Agreement between nurses' documented and patients' self-reported pain was only 27%, and 63% of the pain was underassessed. Pain was particularly underassessed in women, in persons with a lower educational level, in patients who used prehospital analgesics, in smokers, in patients with injury to the lower extremities, in anxious patients, and in patients with a lower urgency level.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Underassessment of pain by emergency nurses is still a major problem and might result in undertreatment of pain if the emergency nurses rely on their assessment to provide further pain treatment. Strategies that focus on awareness among nurses of which patients are at high risk of underassessment of pain are needed.
authors.affiliation: Enschede and Goes, The Netherlands. Electronic address: j.pierik@acutezorgeuregio.nl.
authors.forename: Jorien G J
authors.initials: JGJ
authors.lastname: Pierik
authors.affiliation: Enschede and Goes, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Maarten J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: IJzerman
authors.affiliation: Enschede and Goes, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Menno I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Gaakeer
authors.affiliation: Enschede and Goes, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Miriam M R
authors.initials: MMR
authors.lastname: Vollenbroek-Hutten
authors.affiliation: Enschede and Goes, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Carine J M
authors.initials: CJM
authors.lastname: Doggen
mesh_terms: D059787:Acute Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D000328:Adult; D016529:Emergency Nursing / Q000379:methods*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D059352:Musculoskeletal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000379:methods*; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Acute pain assessment; Discrepancies, underassessment; Emergency department; Risk factors