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The Assessment of Pain and Barriers to Pain Management: A Content Analysis From a National Sample of Hospice Psychosocial Assessments Completed by Social Workers

Pain is a multidimensional symptom frequently experienced by hospice patients that is physical, psychological, social, emotional, and spiritual. Medicare regulations require hospices to complete a psychosocial assessment with content such as patient/family adjustment to illness. Furthermore, pain barriers such as concerns about addiction, and fatalism are recognized impediments to high quality pain management. National data concerning whether hospice social workers are paying attention to issues related to patient pain is minimal. Addressing this gap, we randomly sampled 248 hospices nationally and requested a blank copy of their social work psychosocial assessment and reviewed its pain-related content. A total of 105 hospices (response rate 42.3%) provided an assessment for review. Descriptive statistics summarize agency characteristics and whether pain assessment content and pain barrier content were present. Analyses examined whether pain assessment content was included based on agency characteristics. Of the 105 participating agencies, most were non-profit (60%) and located in the South (30.5%). Less than half (47.6%) of the agencies included pain assessment content in their assessment. No associations were observed between having pain assessment content and agency characteristics. None of the assessments included content about 3 barriers to pain management: tolerance, overdose, stigma, and fatalism. Few agencies included other barriers to pain management: addiction (1%), burden (1%), non-adherence (3.8%) and stoicism (18.1%). Agencies which had pain assessment content mostly included other dimensions of pain: psychological (80%), emotional (74%), and social (78%). Hospice social workers can do more to assess and address pain concerns—especially psychological, social, and emotional dimensions.