Taking pains to care for patients

Star: PUTRAJAYA: All 60,000 nurses and 10,000 doctors in government hospitals will get training in pain management over the next three years to ensure better healthcare services.
Dr Mary Cardosa, the organising chairman of “Making Pain the 5th Vital Sign, Improving Patient Safety” conference, said such training would help medical staff assess pain and reduce patients’ suffering.
“Previously, there were four vital signs nurses looked out for in warded patients — blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate and temperature.
“We believe that it is important to include pain as the fifth vital sign when they check on patients,” she told reporters after attending the conference here yesterday.
“The training is compulsory for medical staff from government hospitals but we hope that the private practice would also organise such programmes to equip nurses and doctors for better healthcare service,” she said.