Training to nurses on the pain assessment in patients with aphasia after a stroke

Objective: to determine the impact of training for nurses in the use of the Spanish version of the Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia scale in adult patients with aphasia secondary to stroke. Methods: uncontrolled before and after study. Theoretical and practical training in the use of the scale was given to 341 nurses. The main variable was the number of patients with stroke assessed by the pain scale during admission. Fisher's exact test for categorical variables and Mann-Whitney's non-parametric U test for quantitative variables were used for the analysis of the variables. Results: 99% of the nurses answered the knowledge test correctly with a mean score of 94.6/100. A total of 80 hospitalized patients were evaluated using the pain assessment scale in the study period: 23 in the pre-training period and 57 in the post-training period. The use of analgesics and antipyretics was higher in the pre-training period. Statistically significant differences were only found in the consumption of hypnotics and sedatives (p = 0.015), increased after training. Conclusions: Training in pain assessment instruments is effective in managing pain of aphasic patients after a stroke.