Changing Pain Management Practice at Franciscan Woods

Abstract

In 1995, Franciscan Woods, a transitional and extended care facility in Brookfield, Wisconsin, took part in the effort led by Weissman et al. to improve pain assessment and pain management in long-term care facilities. Teams of two to four people from each institution took part in a series of four 1-day training modules spread evenly over a 1-year period. Trainings were comprised of didactic lectures, small-group discussions, and focused role plays. After the first day of directed training, participants were charged with the task of creating an action plan to improve pain management within their respective institutions, structured around the adoption of fourteen national practice indicators of an institutional commitment to pain management in long-term care facilities. In the following interview with former Innovations staff editor Samantha Libby Sodickson, Mary Arata, B.S.N., R.N., O.C.N., team leader and oncology nurse at Franciscan Woods, discusses her experience of the year-long educational intervention, her institution's subsequent progress, and the ongoing challenges involved in implementing best practices in pain management in a long-term care facility. This interview was excerpted from a thematic issue, "Promoting Better Pain Management in Long-Term Care Facilities," Volume 3, Number 1, 2001 of the online journal Innovations in End-of-Life Care at <www.edc.org/lastacts/>.