Establishment and effect of cancer pain nursing quality indicators in oncology department

Objective To establish the cancer pain nursing quality indicators, and to explore the effect on improving the quality of cancer pain nursing in the oncology department. Methods Based on the literature review and cross-sectional survey, according to the characteristic of oncology department and cancer pain nursing needs, guided by previous research findings of standard cancer pain nursing management framework, according to the nursing procedure of admission-cancer pain assessment-nursing intervention-cancer pain control evaluation-discharge follow up , eight cancer pain nursing quality indicators were established, including nurse-to-patient ratio, comprehensive assessment rate for cancer pain, dynamic assessment rate, patients' awareness rate of pain knowledge, cancer pain intervention efficiency, qualified rate of nursing records, patients' satisfaction rate with cancer pain control, and the follow-up rate. These indicators were applied in the oncology department to manage the nursing quality, and the data were supervised and analyzed regularly to improve the quality of cancer pain management continuously. Results After six months of the application of cancer pain management quality indicators, the comprehensive assessment rate for cancer pain increased from 86.1% to 100.0%; the dynamic assessment rate increased from 83.3% to 97.5%; patients' awareness rate of pain knowledge increased from 77.8% to 95.0%; the cancer pain intervention efficiency increased from 77.8% to 97.5%; the qualified rate of nursing records increased from 80.0% to 95.0%; patients' satisfaction rate with pain control increased from 83.3% to 96.7%; the follow-up rate increased from 80.0% to 96.0% (χ2=3.90, 3.01, 3.53, 5.29, 4.11, 5.93, 4.25; P<0.05) . Conclusions The application of cancer pain nursing quality indicators can promote the normalization and quality of cancer pain nursing. It can provide evidence for continuous quality improvement of cancer pain nursing and help improve the cancer pain management. Key words: Neoplasms; Pain; Nursing care; Quality indicators; Cancer pain management