Population in the United States

¶ … population in the United States is rapidly aging and many people are using and dying in hospices. At the end of their life when all intervention has failed, the aim of the hospice nurse is to make these patients as comfortable as possible and alleviate their pain. Studies, however, such as those by Miller, Mor, and Teno (2003) showed that pain control is very poorly addressed.

The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to introduce a quality improvement plan, conduct a market analysis and stakeholder assessment, then develop and evaluate the elements of a program to more effectively address the issue of pain control of those patients enrolled in Hospice either in a LTC or at home. This will be done within the format of the five P.

model: (1) purpose (the purpose of the project will be kept in mind), (2) patients (it will be focused on the patient), (3) professionals (professionals will be involved), (4) processes (there will be an organized process) and, (5) patterns (patterns will be monitored). The entire project, in short, will be patient-centered. Statistics collected by the Census Bureau in 2000 show that individuals older than 65 years of age made up approximately 12.9% of the total population. In the year 2030 that percentage is projected to be around 20% of the population (Administration on Aging, 2012).

Many of these individuals are opting for end of life care in a long-term care facility (LTC). In 1994 approximately 25% of deaths occurred in LTCs. By 2040 40% of Americans are projected to die in an LTC (AHRQ, 2012). One of the major concerns for those who are at the end of life is pain control. Pain assessment is vital amongst this population. A study done on the experience of cancer patients in LTCs showed that up to 50% of those studied received inadequate pain management (Johnson, Teno, Bourbonniere, & Mor, 2005).

They are noo logner able to live; it is the etchial obligation of the hostpital staff to ensure that they die in peace. It is cruaical, tehore, we work towards and test methods for alleviating pain. Implementation of 48-hour Pain Management System in Hospice Care The American Pain Society (APS) issued a set of guidelines in the 1990s intended to standardize and improve pain management, thereby providing a framework for assessing care quality.

In January 2001, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) began to assess pain management as part of its accreditation process, through the use of evidence-based standards ( Gordon et al., 2002). In 2002, a set of six consensus pain management standards.