HIGHLIGHTS
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The study emphasizes that the pain symptom is an essential part of the care of any clinical disease in hospitalized patients;
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The recording of pain complaints is often incomplete or flawed;
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There is often a mismatch between the prescribed drug and the reported intensity of pain.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:
Pain is one of the main reasons for seeking medical care. Thus, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the treatment of pain complaints in a medical clinic ward.
METHODS:
Cross-sectional and descriptive study at the Santa Lucinda Hospital (Hospital Santa Lucinda - HSL) and Sorocaba Hospital Complex (Conjunto Hospitalar de Sorocaba - CHS). Data was collected by: (1) interviewing the participants using a structured questionnaire drawn up by the researchers, and (2) accessing information such as pain records and drug prescriptions in the medical records.
RESULTS:
The sample consisted of 85 patients, 11.8% in the HSL and 88.2% in the CHS. More than 80% of patients had already experienced pain at some point in their lives, whether chronic or acute. Forty-one percent of patients had pain during hospitalization, regardless of the reason for admission. A minority of pain events had the complaint recorded in their medical records. Drugs were prescribed for 73.0% of the patients, mostly on demand. There was a mismatch between the type of drug prescribed and the intensity of the pain in 80% of prescriptions.
CONCLUSION:
The complaint of pain is prevalent in Internal Medicine hospitalizations. In this study, 41.2% of the pain was musculoskeletal, followed by abdominal pain, regardless of the reason for hospitalization. The complaint of pain was medicated in most of the patients’ pain reports, but around 23% of the patients complaining of pain did not receive drugs. Most patients (80%) with pain received drugs that were inconsistent with the intensity of the pain; however, the recording of the complaint of pain in the medical records remains insufficient.
Keywords:
Clinical medicine; Hospitalization; Medical clinic hospital unit; Pain; Quality of life