Research Paper Title

A Survey of Military Health Professionals’ Perceptions of an Acute Pain Service at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

Background

The primary goal of this investigation was to survey military health care professionals at a Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, regarding their perceptions of care delivered by an anaesthesiologist-directed acute pain service (APS) at a British Combat Support Hospital (CSH)-Role 3.

Methods

The APS was directed by a US Army anaesthesiologist experienced in acute pain medicine who established an APS within a deployed British CSH. A brief 15-item survey was developed to assess impressions of outcomes, complexity of care, and satisfaction with the APS. Content validity was established through limited published surveys of APSs, expert review, and end user evaluation.

Results

The sample (N = 70, of which 61.4% were male) included 50% nurses, 15.8% surgeons, and 10% anesthesiologists who completed the survey at the end of the 3-month APS implementation period. Approximately 75% of the sample agreed or strongly agreed that injured soldiers managed by an APS obtained better pain relief than those who were not. With a 10-point scale, respondents rated how satisfied they were with the APS (mean 7.70 ± 1.7), how beneficial it was for patients (7.89 ± 2), and how important it would be to deploy an APS again to a level 3 facility (8.52 ± 1.7). Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) for the 12-items measuring perceptions was acceptable, alpha = 0.82.

Conclusions

Overall, the majority of military health care survey responders indicated support for an APS team as part of a CSH care, and confirmed its contributions to improving trauma care.

Reference

Polomano, R.C., Chisholm, E., Anton, T.M., Kwon, N., Mahoney, P.F. & Buckenmaier, C. 3rd. A Survey of Military Health Professionals’ Perceptions of an Acute Pain Service at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan. Pain Medicine. 13(7), pp.927-936.