Abstract
Feasibility and clinical utility are essential characteristics to consider when it
comes to developing or selecting a pain assessment tool to implement into practice.
However, these characteristics have not been widely studied with available pain assessment
tools in critically ill adults. The objective of this study was to describe nurses’
evaluations of the feasibility and clinical utility of the Critical-Care Pain Observation
Tool (CPOT) in assessing pain in critically ill ventilated adults. A descriptive design
was used. Of the 51 nurses who used the CPOT with the enrolled patients (n = 55),
33 returned their completed evaluation form. Overall, the feasibility and clinical
utility of the CPOT were positively evaluated by the nurse participants. More than
90% of them supported that the directives about the use of the CPOT were clear and
that it was simple to understand and easy to complete. Regarding its clinical utility,
a little more than 70% of the nurses mentioned that the CPOT was helpful for nursing
practice and recommended its use routinely. They acknowledged that the CPOT provided
them with a common language and a standardized way to assess patients’ pain. Half
of the nurse participants supported that the CPOT had influenced their practice. On
the other hand, six nurses mentioned that they were already sensitive to nonverbal
cues of pain before the introduction of the CPOT. In conclusion, the CPOT is a valid
behavioral pain scale, which has been suggested by experts in recent critical reviews.
So far, the CPOT is being used for research purposes and has been implemented into
clinical practice of various health care centers of North America.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: September 22, 2009
Accepted:
May 18,
2009
Received in revised form:
May 1,
2009
Received:
January 14,
2009
Footnotes
Supported by a Research Development Grant from the Jewish General Hospital Foundation.
Identification
Copyright
© 2010 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
