Campbell Scale for pain assessment in Hospital Emergency Units. The case of Turkana, Kenya

Section: Originals

How to quote

García Higón E, Climent Rubio A, Martínez Riera JR. La escala Campbell para la valoración del dolor en urgencias/emergencias. El caso de Turkana, Kenya. Metas Enferm mar 2017; 20(2): 12-17.

Authors

Elena García Higón1, Andrés Climent Rubio2, José Ramón Martínez Riera3

Position

1 Enfermera, cooperante en Turkana (Kenya). Coordinadora del Grupo de Trabajo de Cooperación Internacional y Transculturalidad de la Asociación de Enfermería Comunitaria (AEC) 2 Enfermero, cooperante en Turkana (Kenya). Vocal del Grupo de Trabajo de Cooperación Internacional y Transculturalidad de la Asociación de Enfermería Comunitaria (AEC)3 Doctor por la Universidad de Alicante. Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud. Universidad de Alicante. Presidente de la Asociación de Enfermería Comunitaria (AEC)

Contact address

Elena García Higón. Paseo Alameda, 60-8º, 2ª. 46023 Valencia.

Contact email: egarciahigon@gmail.com

Abstract

Objective: to study the feasibility of a pain assessment scale that considers behavioural features and that can provide the healthcare staff with an assessment not only based on the interpretation of their pain by patients, in the rural area of Turkana.
Method: a descriptive observational study was conducted. People between 18 and 65-year-old were selected, from the Turkana culture, with pain in emergency situations, and they were divided into two groups. For Group 1, the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and the Faces Pain Scale (FPS) were used, while the Campbell Scale was used for Group 2. The correlation between the three scales was analyzed through the Spearman Index.
Results: the study included 48 adult patients: 32 in Group 1 and 16 in Group 2. While the VAS and FPS maintained a good 0.667 correlation between them, the Campbell Scale offered values of 0.245 and 0.36 respectively, with each of the other scales; therefore, there did not seem to be an association between this scale and each of the other scales.
Conclusions: assessment with scales based on the association with a number or a face will present failures, while the result of a combined use of these scales with a scale such as the Campbell Scale will be more satisfactory.

Keywords:

pain; cultural differences; assessment scales; emergency; Campbell; research; research

Versión en Español

Título:

La escala Campbell para la valoración del dolor en urgencias/emergencias. El caso de Turkana, Kenya