Personalised advice and instructions for pain relief following discharge from ED (PAIN study)

Pain has been suggested to be the "fifth vital sign", of obvious importance to the patient. Many patients who present to Emergency Departments are discharged home with pain, and need to take analgesia after discharge. This study aims to understand whether personalised advice provided to patients improves their compliance with medications, pain scores and understanding following discharge. The PAIN study will be run as a prospective randomised controlled trial at the Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital Emergency Department. This is a pilot study. All patients who present with pain will be assessed for suitability, and if satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, will be invited to participate in the study. This will involve randomisation to the control group who will receive the usual pain relief instructions or the intervention group who will receive customised pain relief instructions as a print out and via their mobile phone. The instructions are created via a web/mobile application and combine small sections of advice in simple, readable text with accompanying pictograms. These instructions are customised for each patient based on the pain relief advice given to them at discharge by their treating doctor. The content of the print out of the instructions is viewable by text message (in the exact same format) on the patient's phone at discharge. All patients will be followed up at 5 days with an online questionnaire.