Tag Archives: pain

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CaHRU attends Trent Regional Society for Academic Primary Care Conference

sapcMembers of the Community and Health Research Unit (CaHRU) recently attended the Trent Regional SAPC Spring Conference (13 March 2018) organised by the University of Sheffield. The conference included delegates mainly from the Universities of Lincoln, Nottingham, Leicester and Sheffield, as well as professionals from all over our region interested in primary care research and education.

After a very warm welcome from Professor Chris Burton, Dr Austin O’Carroll gave a very inspiring and thought-provoking keynote speech on his work with marginalised groups (especially homeless people) and their challenges zahidwith accessing healthcare. Delegates then had the opportunity to attend oral presentations of posters and a variety of longer 15′ oral presentations. Dr Zahid Asghar of CaHRU also gave a very well-received oral presentation on his study, entitled “Exploring factors increasing Paramedics’ likelihood of administering Analgesia in pre-hospital pain”. After a much-needed lunch, delegates were split into three smaller workshop groups looking into three distinct subjects: “Resources for grant-writing” (Paul Leighton), “Introducing community/voluntary sector placements to Undergraduate Medical Education” (Joanne Thompson), and “Patient and Public Involvement at the Deep End Yorkshire and Humber: How should we involve patients EMAS - A&E 7_750with our research” (Liz Walton). The day came to an end with a great key note speech by Professor Robbie Foy on a ‘real world’ trial of a strategy to promote evidence-based primary care.

Delegates, while waving goodbye to the wonderful St Mary’s Conference Centre – an old church converted into a conference centre- promised to meet again this July in London for the Annual Conference of the Society for Academic Primary Care.

By Despina Laparidou

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CaHRU wins new grant to investigate prehospital pain management

zahidAn international team of researchers led by Prof Niro Siriwardena with statistician Dr Zahid Asghar from CaHRU has been awarded funding from the Falck Foundation to study prehospital pain management. The study involves collaboration between CaHRU at the University of Lincoln, with East Midlands, East of England and South Central Ambulance Service NHS Trusts, together with the Universities of Swansea, Hertfordshire and the Sunshine Coast (Australia).

EMAS - A&E 9The study, ‘Exploring factors increasing Paramedics’ likelihood of administering Analgesia in pre-hospital pain: cross sectional study (ExPLAIN)’ aims to identify how patient factors such as age, gender, ethnicity and the cause of pain together with clinician factors such as sex or role seniority affect pain assessment and use of analgesic drugs by ambulance staff. The study builds on previous research conducted by members of the team in the area of prehospital pain management and the findings will be used to inform recommendations to improve the rate and quality of acute pain relief provided by ambulance staff and to reduce unintended variations in care.

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The study is part of CaHRU’s ongoing research as part of its Prehospital and Emergency Quality and Outcomes (PEQO) workstream which involves collaboration with other ambulance services in England and which has already led to new measures and improvements in the quality of ambulance service care provision.

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New study published on how acute pain management could be improved in urgent care

Mohammad Iqbal, research fellow and PhD student at the University of Lincoln and research associate at East Midlands Ambulance Service (EMAS), together with Anne Spaight (senior research fellow at the University of Lincoln and Head of Clinical Governance, Audit and Research at EMAS) and Niro Siriwardena (professor of primary and prehospital health care) have a new study published online in the Emergency Medical Journal. The study entitled: ‘Patients’ and emergency clinicians’ perceptions of improving pre-hospital pain management: a qualitative study’  follows on from an earlier study investigating prehospital pain management which showed that under two-fifths of patients with a painful condition (heart attack or fracture) were provided with pain relief.

Although patients and staff expected pain to be relieved in the ambulance, refusal of or inadequate analgesia were common. Pain was often assessed using a verbal pain score, but practitioners’ views of severity were sometimes different from patients’ views. Morphine and Entonox were commonly used to treat pain, but reassurance, positioning and immobilisation were used as alternatives to drugs.

The authors concluded that pre-hospital pain management could be improved by addressing practitioner and patient barriers, increasing available drugs and developing multi-organisational pain management protocols supported by training for staff. These findings may be used to inform guidance, education and policy to improve the pre-hospital pain management pathway.

Niro Siriwardena co-leads the NIHR Programme Grant for Applied Research: Prehospital Outcomes for Evidence based Evaluation (PhOEBE).