Clinical Audit Project Report —Audit of the Palliative Care Practitioners’ Adherence to WHO Guidelines in Managing Patients’ Pain at Cancer Diseases Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

Abstract

Appropriate adherence to World Health Organisation (WHO) pain management guidelines is vital in palliative care centres as it promotes the comfort of patients who are experiencing pain and it improves their quality of life. WHO (1996) highlighted the use of the WHO analgesic ladder guideline. This “analgesic ladder” proposes that after proper assessment with an appropriate pain assessment tool, patients in mild pain should be given non-opioids plus or minus adjuvants (including anticonvulsants and steroids); patients in moderate pain should be given weak opioids plus or minus non-opioids plus or minus adjuvants; and patients in severe pain should be given strong opioids plus or minus non-opioids plus or minus adjuvants as per the WHO pain ladder. The audit project was focused on assessing the palliative care practitioners’ (PCPs) adherence to WHO guidelines in managing their patients’ pain at Cancer Diseases Hospital (CDH). 15 participants were involved in the study and the data collection method used was a cross-sectional study in which the auditor observed PCPs, with an observation checklist comparing practice with WHO analgesic ladder guidelines. The result revealed that most of the PCPs were not meeting 80% of the standard set in the specific objectives for the audit. 7 (47%) PCPs were scoring the pain level before analgesia administration, whereas 8 (53%) PCPs were not scoring the pain level before analgesia administration. On the other hand, 47% (7 PCPs) were adhering to the WHO ladder of pain management, but 53% (8 PCPs) were not adhering to the WHO ladder of pain management. Therefore, effective adherence to the WHO analgesic ladder practice is still lacking in the PCPs at CDH. The percentage of PCPs who were not scoring the pain and not adhering to the WHO pain ladder guidelines was high, which is 8 (53%). Therefore, a re-audit is recommended to find out if levels of adherence have improved or not.