Supervision in Clinical Practice Indicator: Analysis of the Evaluation of Pain in the Context of Ambulatory Surgery

Abstract

Clinical supervision, as a formal process of monitoring professional practice, aims to improve decision-making to contribute to safety and quality of care through reflection processes and analysis of clinical practice. This study aimed to compare the postoperative pain evaluation and clinical recording procedures performed by nursing staff and clinical supervisors in ambulatory surgery patients. The study was integrated into the research project “SAFECARE”. It was developed a descriptive cross-sectional quantitative study in an ambulatory surgery unit of a University Hospital in Oporto, Portugal. The study population was the nursing staff with an intentional nonprobabilistic sampling method. A questionnaire was constructed and evaluation of postoperative pain, patient clinical and demographic variables was included. This instrument was applied in 116 patients matched by 12 surgical specialties. Results were compared between nursing staff, clinical supervisors and electronic nursing records. Patients had an average age of 48.6 years, being mostly female. Regarding pain evaluation, the scale most used by nurses (62.1%) and clinical supervisors (67.2%) was the “Numerical Scale”. Postoperative pain evaluation scores ranged from 0 to 7, with score 0 (no pain) presenting more frequently by nurses, electronic nursing records and clinical supervisors. 34.5% of results were not documented in electronic nursing records. These findings support the importance of an intervention of clinical supervision in the indicator “pain” for the outpatient surgery setting. Local protocols of clinical supervision practice would contribute to improve postoperative pain evaluation, as well as standardization and optimization of nursing records, thus ensuring quality care.