%0 Journal Article
%T A week of pain in the emergency department
%A Hilary Sarah Thornton
%A Joseph Reynolds
%A Timothy J Coats
%J British Journal of Pain
%@ 2049-4645
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/2049463717731898
%X Pain is a common complaint in patients attending the emergency department (ED), and historically, it is under-assessed and undertreated. Previous research is heterogeneous and does not well describe pain in EDs over time. Our aim was to describe pain in a UK ED using a sample that included every adult attendance over the course of 1 week. We retrospectively reviewed every adult attendance (N = 1872) over 1 week to the ED of a large English NHS District General Hospital. We noted the initial pain score and, if the initial score was ¡Ý5, the final recorded pain score. We categorised attendances as ¡®illness¡¯ or ¡®injury¡¯. In all, 62.1% of patients had a pain score recorded, of whom 50.7% had a pain score of zero. Median pain score was 6/10 in patients with pain; 58% had a second score recorded. More patients with illness than injury had a second score recorded. Most patients had an improvement in their pain; however, around one-third had no change or worse pain at the end of their ED stay. We have defined the incidence, severity and change in pain in an ED over 1 week. This information will underpin the design of future studies aimed at improving patient care in this important area of emergency medicine practice
%K Acute pain
%K chronic pain
%K pain
%K pain measurement
%K emergency department
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2049463717731898