Does pain matter in the Australian Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety? A text mining study
Access Status
Authors
Date
2023Type
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Source Title
ISSN
Faculty
School
Collection
Abstract
Background Pain is often poorly documented, assessed and managed in the Australian aged care sector. The Australian Government called for the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (RC) to investigate the serious concerns, neglects and abuses including the inadequate pain management seen in the sector. This study examined the degree to which the RC discussed the issue of pain in their published reports and recommendations. Methods A text mining study with a computer-assisted term frequency analysis identified mentions of the word “pain” in the text of two key reports produced by the RC: the Interim Report and the Final Report. Main outcome measures included frequency of mentions of “pain”, cumulative percentile rank of the word “pain”, proportion of words that were “pain”, and frequency of mentions of the word “pain” in quotes. Results The word “pain” was mentioned often in the Interim Report (n = 10, 0.03% of all words, 87th percentile) and the Final Report (n = 218, 0.05% of all words, 97th percentile). However, the word “pain” was absent from final recommendations of the RC. Conclusions Although the RC discussed pain in their reports, the topic was omitted from recommendations, reflecting a lack of attention to the presented evidence. Without specific recommendations for pain management, a disconnection may arise between targeted polices, programs and funding schemes, and the clinical practice. Thus, older adults living in the community and residential aged care homes may remain vulnerable.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Savvas, S.; Toye, Christine; Beattie, E.; Gibson, S. (2014)Pain is common in residential aged care facilities (RACFs). In 2005, the Australian Pain Society developed 27 recommendations for good practice in the identification, assessment, and management of pain in these settings. ...
-
Rees, Nancy Wylie (2000)Postoperative pain management is a major responsibility of nurses who provide care for patients recovering from surgery. In the postsurgical environment, the nurse has a pivotal role in assessing the patient with pain, ...
-
Froud, R.; Eldridge, S.; Kovacs, F.; Breen, A.; Bolton, J.; Dunn, K.; Fritz, J.; Keller, A.; Kent, Peter; Lauridsen, H.; Ostelo, R.; Pincus, T.; Tulder, M.; Vogel, S.; Underwood, M. (2011)Background: Low back pain is a common and expensive health complaint. Many low back pain trials have been conducted, but these are reported in a variety of ways and are often difficult to interpret. Aim: To facilitate ...