Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Pain Management Manual for Hospice Providers to Support and Educate Family Caregivers

Abstract

Background: Family caregivers encounter many barriers to managing patients’ pain in the home hospice setting. However, there are limited clinically applicable resources for hospice providers to help family caregivers identify and address these barriers. Aim: To develop a pain management manual for hospice providers to support family caregivers and conduct a preliminary providers’ evaluation of the manual. Design and Participants: A pain management manual was developed and structured into 3 parts: (1) 5 common pain management case scenarios based on a secondary data analysis of a hospice clinical trial; (2) a list of suggested assessment questions and strategies for each case scenario was developed based on a caregiver framework; and (3) pain educational material was included from established clinical guidelines. The manual was vetted by 5 experts and then was evaluated by interviewing 25 hospice providers. Interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The hospice providers found that the manual could potentially serve as a reference in their practice and be a source for their continuing education. They suggested enhancing the clarity of the case scenarios and adding additional strategies to the manual. Moreover, they suggested expanding the paper-based version and developing a web-based platform to deliver the content would maximize its utility. Conclusions: The manual has the potential to be integrated into routine hospice care to improve the quality of pain management.