A multicenter randomized control trial evaluating professional practice assessment of patient pain management after simulation training course: Study protocol

AIMS: Pain is underestimated and insufficiently treated in Emergency Departments (ED). The primary objective of this multicenter, prospective, observational, and interventional study is to analyze the clinical impact of a simulation-based training for Emergency Nurses on pain assessment and management. Secondary objectives are to measure instructed staff's satisfaction with the simulation training and to evaluate the progress of participants as well as studying the clinical impact of this course: level of correlation between accuracy of analgesia and level of pain, assessment of patient and caregiver satisfaction. DESIGN: this study will be undertaken in EDs at two university hospitals (Paris, France: Bichat and Beaujon) with randomly selected experimental and control groups. METHODS: During the first phase, inventories in the EDs of current professional practice will be realized. Then, the control group will have theoretical classes and the experimental group will have both the theoretical class and simulation courses for all the nurses (with simulated patients in trauma pain scenarios). Post course assessment will be established of triage nurses' and other nurses’ practice changes concerning trauma pain management in EDs. Moreover, this study will include an assessment of the impact on patient and caregiver satisfaction. All patients over 18 years old who are admitted to the ED for a non-vital trauma are included. Exclusion criteria are patients who are admitted by an EMS ambulance. CLINICAL IMPLICATION: this study seeks to demonstrate that the implementation of a theoretical course combined with a simulation session will improve pain management in EDs by Emergency Nurses.