Anita Jablonski Receives Funding for Pain Management Study
Anita Jablonski, RN, PhD has been awarded another year of funding to continue her research into the effects of pain management among elderly nursing home residents.
Twenty-five nursing homes are currently participating in the study. Facilities are randomized into either a control or intervention group. All staff members at the facilities attend classes that provide the most current evidenced-based practices for pain management in the elderly. Dr. Jablonski writes that classes given to the intervention groups “are based on evidence-based algorithms that can be used to help staff manage pain. The intervention group also gets added assistance in the form of a pain management team to help them manage pain." The residents’ pain levels are assessed prior to the classes, one month afterwards, and again four months after the classes are held in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the different approaches.
Dr. Jablonski is the co-investigator on this study along with the principal investigator, Mary Ersek, PhD, RN, FAAN of the University of Pennsylvania. The study is funded by the National Institute for Nursing Research, a component of the National Institutes of Health