UA Teaching Nurse Aides How to ID Pain in Dementia Patients

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Sometimes questions of “where does it hurt?” are not good enough, say researchers at The University of Alabama.

While a patient describing their pain to a health care professional is the most accurate method of gauging pain, Dr. Louis Burgio, professor of psychology and co-director of UA’s Center for Mental Health and Aging, said that is not always feasible.

“Most nursing home residents experience some degree of cognitive impairment to the extent that relying on self-reporting for measuring pain is problematic,” Burgio said.

The National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Nursing Research awarded Burgio a $141,000 grant to teach certified nursing assistants and licensed practical nurses techniques to better assess dementia patients’ pain and more effective ways of communicating with these patients and with one another.

He and a UA psychology graduate student, Susan Fisher, are working with nurses and nurse aides in three Tuscaloosa-area nursing homes owned by Northport Health Services and one Birmingham nursing home.

Dementia patients in pain often give non-communicative cues to their pain, but these cues are not always interpreted, Burgio said. The project also aims to explore how improvements in pain assessment and communication could impact the extent to which painkillers are prescribed for dementia patients.

Established in 2002, the UA Center for Mental Health and Aging’s mission is to develop new knowledge, test new interventions, and disseminate information related to mental health and again. Through applied interdisciplinary research, the CMHA promotes improved quality of life for older adults.