Introduction
Palliative care has become a necessity for nursing professionals among critically-ill patients. Patients suffering from immense pain need palliative care management. Doctors are said to act as technical guides in the intervention of a diseases while nurses can manage the overall process of healing in patients. Thus palliative care forms the basis for pain management. Nurse practitioners ensure planning, implementation, coordination and evaluation in palliative care for pain management. This paper addresses the data collection and analysis done by a nursing professional in palliative care for pain management. (Eduardo B and David H, 2012)
Data collection procedures
Collection of data for conducting a study is crucial since it would have impacts on both the patient’s health as well as the nurse’s practice. Data about the subjects or participants can be collected in various forms. The most ideal way is the use of a questionnaire. The questionnaire should be complete and precise. If palliative care is for cancer patients then inclusion criteria that would be specific to the study should be mentioned. A questionnaire would give details on both, dependent and independent variables. A survey form that could be circulated over the internet and local health care centers could be used as a means of data collection. Interviews with patients would be an appropriate method for precise data collection. Interviews held could be face to face or telephonic. Referral systems in case of pain management does work often. In this case patients are referred by physicians and nurses from other hospitals. These patients are supposed to be ideal candidates for a pain management study program. Patients recruited for such programs (pain management and palliative care) would be ideally undergoing treatment from severe disease like cancer, tuberculosis, heart failure, HIV, respiratory failure etc.
However, important aspects about the patient like age, sex and ethnic group would be essential part of the data collection procedure. Thus online surveys, questionnaires, interviews and referral systems would be ideal data collection methods for pain management program. (Annicka G P et al; 2012)
Analysis plan for demographic variables
Demographics variables among the patient group can be analyzed in a simple and illustrative manner. If the study (pain management) is being conducted within the same country or state, ethnic background may not be given special emphasis. If it is an international study being conducted at different places, patients would be categorized on basis of ethnicity. The next variable that would be essential for this study is social and economic status. A background check of the patient regarding the family income, marital status and the number of children would be carried out. It would be important to keep a check on the number of women and men participants (patients) in the program. If the study plan includes only a specific ethnic group, the study should be replicated using other ethnic groups to check the validity of the study. Also emphasis on the gender should be given, equal number of male and female patients should be recruited for a valid and reliable management plan.
Analysis Plan for Study Variables
Study variables include mainly dependent variables. These may have direct impacts on the outcomes of the result. Prior to study, inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study should be setup. Study variables that would be analyzed before and during the study are physiological and psychological factors of patients. Patients should have symptoms of pain in some form or the other before the study. Medications and changes in dosages would be thoroughly checked. Stress, blood pressure and pulse rate would be monitored on a regular basis. Physical and Mental status of patients should be maintained. (Tatsuya M, et al; 2012)
References
Eduardo B and David H. Conceptual Models for Integrating Palliative Care at Cancer Centers. J Palliat Med. 2012 November; 15(11): 1261–1269. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3533890/
Annicka G P, Bregje D O, and Luc D. BMC Health Serv Res. 2012; 12: 163. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3413598/#__ffn_sectitle
Tatsuya M, Mitsunori M, Akemi Y, Nobuya A, Yoshiyuki K, Yutaka S, Miki A, Kei H, Motohiro M, Masako Y, Taketoshi M, Takuhiro Y and Kenji E. A region-based palliative care intervention trial using the mixed-method approach: Japan OPTIM study. BMC Palliat Care. 2012; 11: 2. Retrieved from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3349547/
