https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/cape-town/oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32775
type: CreativeWork
name: Developing an in-depth understanding of acute pain assessment and management in the prehospital setting in the Western Cape, South Africa, the factors influencing practice and what improvement measures could advance prehospital acute pain management
description: Introduction: Acute pain is a common reason for seeking emergency care in the prehospital and emergency centre settings where pain prevalence ranges widely. Pain is a significant global health problem which often goes unnoticed and is undermanaged. To this end, a project consisting of a series of research studies aimed to develop an understanding of acute prehospital pain assessment and management in South Africa was conducted to identify how best to improve this field. Methods: The project consisted of four distinct objectives to be investigated as separate but interconnected studies. The first objective was answered through a secondary research methodology (scoping review) to identify and map the body of evidence on acute prehospital pain assessment and management in Africa. The remaining three objectives were answered using primary research methods in studies conducted in the Western Cape, South Africa. Two observational studies, (i) a cross-sectional online survey and (ii) a retrospective review, respectively, aimed to describe (i) the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding prehospital acute pain assessment and management among emergency care providers and (ii) current prehospital acute pain assessment and management practices in high acuity trauma patients. The final study employed qualitative research methods using focus groups and content analysis to explore and describe emergency care providers' perspectives of acute pain assessment and management as well as perceived barriers and facilitators to pain management. Main results: In the scoping review, six publications on acute pain research in the African prehospital setting were identified, indicative of the paucity and immaturity of this research area. In the cross-sectional online survey, suboptimal levels of knowledge and attitudes regarding pain (58.01%) were found among emergency care providers, with gaps in all aspects of pain knowledge and attitudes of distrust in self-reported pain identified. T…
abstract: Introduction: Acute pain is a common reason for seeking emergency care in the prehospital and emergency centre settings where pain prevalence ranges widely. Pain is a significant global health problem which often goes unnoticed and is undermanaged. To this end, a project consisting of a series of research studies aimed to develop an understanding of acute prehospital pain assessment and management in South Africa was conducted to identify how best to improve this field. Methods: The project consisted of four distinct objectives to be investigated as separate but interconnected studies. The first objective was answered through a secondary research methodology (scoping review) to identify and map the body of evidence on acute prehospital pain assessment and management in Africa. The remaining three objectives were answered using primary research methods in studies conducted in the Western Cape, South Africa. Two observational studies, (i) a cross-sectional online survey and (ii) a retrospective review, respectively, aimed to describe (i) the knowledge, attitudes and practices regarding prehospital acute pain assessment and management among emergency care providers and (ii) current prehospital acute pain assessment and management practices in high acuity trauma patients. The final study employed qualitative research methods using focus groups and content analysis to explore and describe emergency care providers' perspectives of acute pain assessment and management as well as perceived barriers and facilitators to pain management. Main results: In the scoping review, six publications on acute pain research in the African prehospital setting were identified, indicative of the paucity and immaturity of this research area. In the cross-sectional online survey, suboptimal levels of knowledge and attitudes regarding pain (58.01%) were found among emergency care providers, with gaps in all aspects of pain knowledge and attitudes of distrust in self-reported pain identified. T…
author: Lourens, Andrit
keywords: Emergency Medicine
date published: 2020
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:23:09Z
provider: University of Cape Town
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Division of Emergency Medicine

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32775