What gets in the way of effective pre-hospital pain management?

This qualitative study, informed by grounded theory methodology, explores emergency medical services (EMS) staff's attitudes towards pain management. The researchers wanted to establish whether attitudes can act as deterrents when making decisions to administer analgesic agents to patients.

The study was undertaken in New England, USA and involved paramedics who had at least 12 months experience on the road. The researchers recruited from rural and urban areas and included a mix of private EMS agencies (n=2) and hospital-based services (n=3) to increase maximum variation within their purposive sampling strategy. As a point of interest, all of the agencies used morphine in their formularies, and some used additional drugs (for example, fentanyl).

Both focus groups and semi-structured individual interviews were used to gather data. The researchers explain they wanted to use both methods because individual interviews allowed them to gain in-depth, individual perspectives while the focus groups facilitated shared discussion revealing a group's response to the topic area.