preview

Development Of A Service Innovation

Better Essays

Introduction
The aim of the report is to discuss the development of a service innovation in a hospital care setting. Therefore the innovation being introduced in the report will focus on the pain management tool for assessing chronic conditions in service users with dementia in hospital settings. As pain is a very subjective experience it is important that the tool is specifically based on the individual’s own way of expressing and communicating their pain in relation to their chronic conditions.
The first section of this report will review and evaluate a body of evidence to support the development of the pain management tool by looking at the subject of the change management proposal, the relevant stakeholders and the change agent to …show more content…

The Pain management tool is known as “How to keep me pain free” (See Appendix 1). The tool’s focus is to provide person centred care and holistic assessment for the service user. The chart will also incorporate the service user’s family and carers to assist nurses in the assessment process.

The relevant stakeholders in the change are:
• Dementia Specialist nurses
• Patients with dementia
• Nurses on the ward
• Family and carers
• Specialist Pain Nurses
• Pain team Consultant

The Change agent:
• The change agent chosen for the innovation is the ward sister who will advocate, lead and implement change (Gopee and Galloway (2014, p.154).

Dementia is an umbrella term used to describe a decline in mental ability that has an impact on a person’s daily living. By reviewing literature on dementia it was evident that there are currently 800,000 people with dementia in the UK. One in three people over 65 will develop dementia and there will be over a million people with dementia by 2021 (Alzheimer’s Society, 2013).

According to the Alzheimer’s Society (2013) pain is still poorly detected and undertreated in people with dementia admitted to acute hospital sectors. This is because those with dementia or with more than mild cognitive impairment can often find it difficult to express that they are in pain or are unable to articulate the level of pain that they are in (Banicek,2010). As the

Get Access