Inter-Professional-Compassionate pain management during endotracheal suctioning: a valuable lesson from a Chinese surgical intensive care unit

Abstract Objective To compare the effects of a pain management program and routine suctioning methods on the level of pain presence and agitation in Chinese adults admitted to the intensive care unit. To disseminate the results from the implementation of the evidence-informed pain management interventions for reducing pain presence and agitation during endotracheal tube suctioning (ETS) and translate the key finding to clinical nursing practice. Methods A quasi-experimental study of a two-group post-test design was conducted in adults admitted after surgery to a surgical intensive care unit (SICU) of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Kunming Medical University, Yunnan, China in 2018. Fifty-two adults who met the study eligibility were included after consent, 26 in each group. Patients in the control group received usual care while patients in the intervention group received interventions to reduce agitation and pain-related ETS. The impacts of the intervention on the level of pain presence and agitation were measured at 5 measuring time points using the Chinese versions of Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) and Richmond Agitation Sedation Scale (RASS). Results The level of pain presence in the intervention group statistically significantly decreased during, immediately after, and 5 min after suctioning. The level of agitation in the intervention group significantly decreased during and immediately after suctioning. Conclusions The findings provide support for the positive pain-relieving effects of the evidence-informed pain-related ETS management interventions when compared with the usual ETS practice. The study interventions were sufficiently effective and safe to maintain patent airway clean and patent as standardized suctioning and helps pain relief. So, evidence-based pain-related ETS management intervention is worthy of recommending to utilize in SICU patients as well as other patients who required suctioning. It is worth noting that integrating pre-emptive analgesia prescription and administration with non-pharmacological intervention plays a critical role in achieving pain relief.