Aim: To describe the development and introduction of a pain scale for patients with cognitive impairment who are admitted to homes for older people and nursing homes in the region of northwest Flanders in Belgium.
Design: A questionnaire comparing the Abbey and Pain Assessment in Advanced Dementia (PAINAD) scales was distributed in 17 homes; 185 care providers participated, evaluating 157 patients.
Findings: Approximately half of the care providers evaluated both scales as being good measures of pain and easy to use. Of the different items scored in both scales, care providers agreed upon three indicators as being most valuable to use for measuring pain: facial expression; vocalization; and body language.
Conclusion: The findings were not conclusive for the introduction of either Abbey or PAINAD. Based on the results, a simplified pain observation scale consisting of three items was developed. It has been introduced in the homes of the region and is being tested currently.