Management of residents' pain in extended care settings: Resource issues for nurses

Objectives: To discuss the issues of poor management and inadequate allocation of resources in the management of chronic pain for residents in an extended care setting. Method: Drew on critical social science and entailed the first author acting as a consultant in the research setting, assisting nurses to identify practices which enhanced pain management and to overcome barriers to adequate pain control with a selected number of clients. Results: Identified a lack of resource allocation. Resourcing difficulties occurred at two levels. Documentation provided minimal opportunity to record nursing time spent dealing with residents in pain or to have pain identified as an area needing resources. Secondly, when pain was identified during the research process it became evident that staffing levels and expectations put upon nurses were an issue. Conclusion: Each case study was a success story in terms of increased knowledge for those individual nurses and allied health care workers involved, and respite for those residents suffering pain. However, the adequate and effective recording of needed resources, and allocation of these resources remains a fundamental issue for the organisation to grapple with.