Audit improves emergency department triage, assessment, multi-modal analgesia and nerve block use in the management of pain in older people with neck of femur fracture.
BACKGROUND
The use of NBs as a mode of analgesia for #NOF in the ED is not common practice despite the reported clinical benefits of quicker onset of pain relief, decreased use of additional analgesia and decreased amounts of analgesia required when more than one mode of analgesia is prescribed.


AIM
This study aims to test the hypothesis that the implementation of educational and awareness strategies increases knowledge, and implementation of the evidence based use of nerve blocks NB's, as a mode of analgesia for elderly patients with a fractured neck of femur (#NOF) in the Emergency Department (ED).


METHODS
A retrospective clinical audit of medical records using explicit chart review pre and post implementation.


RESULTS
Implementation of educational and awareness strategies on pain management to clinical staff in the ED resulted in a significant increase in the administration of NBs, use of multimodal analgesia, and a reduction in average milligrams of morphine administrated to elderly patients with #NOF.


CONCLUSIONS
The number of older people with #NOF presenting to the ED in Australia is increasing and historically, pain management in this group of patients could be improved. This study demonstrated that an audit, intervention and re-audit design that focused on the implementation of educational and promotional strategies informed by evidence on current and best practice standards were successful in improving delivery of analgesia to elderly patients with #NOF in the ED.
['Newton-Brown|Emma|E|', 'Fitzgerald|Les|L|', 'Mitra|Biswadev|B|']
D000368:Aged D000369:Aged, 80 and over D000698:Analgesia D000700:Analgesics D004632:Emergency Medical Services D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital D005260:Female D005265:Femoral Neck Fractures D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008485:Medical Audit D009407:Nerve Block D010146:Pain D059408:Pain Management D012189:Retrospective Studies D014218:Triage D014739:Victoria
Analgesia Nerve block Elderly Pain management Femoral neck fractures