Prehospital pain relief in case of limb injury

SUMMARY Author: Birutė Vabalaitė Title: The Study on Pain Relief in the Pre-hospitalisation Stage in the Cases of Limb Injuries The aim is to investigate and assess the connection between the usage of the pain assessment scale and the efficiency of treating the pain of the patients who have suffered limb injuries in the pre-hospitalisation stage. The objectives of the research are 1) to investigate how the staff of the Kaunas City Ambulance Service (KAS) and the nurses of the Emergency Department of the Hospital of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kauno klinikos (KKED) use the pain assessment scale; 2) to investigate whether the usage of the pain assessment scale differs between the staff of the KAS and the nurses of the KKED; 3) to estimate how the value of the pain score according to the pain assessment scale is related to the efficiency of pain relief in the pre-hospitalisation stage. Participants in the research 32 members of the staff of the KKED and 62 members of the staff of the KAS participated in the research as well as 100 patients who suffered from limb injuries (Territorial Health Insurance Fund Code S40-99). Methodology. In the first stage, two questionnaires were submitted to the staffs of the KKED and the KAS. In the second stage, information from the KAS and the KKED databases was collected. The collected data included pain assessment scores and their changes from the arrival at the KAS to the reception at the KKED; and pain treatment depending on the intensity of the pain. The data analysis was performed using SPSS 23.0 statistical software. The significance level was p