Overcoming Barriers to Pain Assessment: Communicating Pain Information with Intubated Older Adults

Pain assessment for older adults.

WHY: Studies on pain in older adults (persons 65 years of age and older) have demonstrated that pain is a common problem. In one study, 50% of adults 65 years of age and older said they experienced pain in the previous 30 days (U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2006). Up to 80% of nursing residents experience pain regularly. Yet, the undertreatment of pain is pervasive (Zanocchi et al., ...

Overcoming Communication Barriers: Communicating with Deaf People

THERE deaf or hard-of-hearing person. Deaf and hardIS NO TYPICAL of-hearing patrons come from diverse backgrounds and use differing communication modes. Librarians can best communicate with and serve these individuals by learning and applying basic communication skills. Information on deafness and deaf people is presented, as are easily learned skills that are effective in communicating with de...

Communicating with Older Adults

A S TUD EN T S P E A K S During the years I worked as a food server I grew accustomed to waiting on older people. They can’t always read the menu, they complain that the lighting in the restaurant is too low, they like their dinner experience to be slower, they can’t find their silver when they need it, the soup is never hot enough and the cup of coffee is never full enough. They would yell at ...

Using pain-rating scales with older adults.

Assessing pain in older adults.

WHY: Studies on pain in older adults (persons 65 years of age and older) have demonstrated that 25%45% of community dwelling older people have chronic pain. 45-85% of nursing home residents also report pain that is often left untreated. Although there is minimal research that strictly focuses on pain in older adults, studies with younger participants have elucidated associations between pain an...