Emergency department clinicians’ perceptions on the use of patient controlled analgesia in emergency departments

Patient controlled analgesia (PCA) is a method widely used in surgical, obstetric, orthopaedic, and palliative care units to manage pain. PCA pumps are loaded with pre-filled syringes of an opioid analgesic, connected to a patient’s intravenous (IV) line, and analgesia is administered in set doses when the patient activates a button on the PCA. Lockout periods are pre-programed to prevent patients from receiving unsafe doses of the medication. Research in the post-operative environment has identified several advantages of PCAs including increased patient autonomy, decreased nursing workload, decreased time to receive analgesia, and improved patient satisfaction (McNicol et al., 2015). Due to these benefits, PCAs are used extensively in other settings however their use in Emergency Departments (EDs) is minimal or non-existent. Interviews will be conducted with ED clinicians in nursing, medicine, and pharmacy disciplines at two participating sites. This purposeful sample will have direct experience and involvement with opioid prescribing or preparation in an ED and thus are an important component of the multidisciplinary team; it is anticipated they will provide useful insight and expertise from different perspectives. A single interview will be conducted with each participant. Interviews will be approximately fifteen minutes long and digitally recorded. The researcher will use an interview guide while conducting the interview. References McNicol, E. D., Ferguson, M. C., & Hudcova, J. (2015). Patient controlled opioid analgesia versus non-patient controlled opioid analgesia for postoperative pain. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2015(6), 1–129.