Caregiver Willingness to Provide and Accept Analgesia for Pain in the Acute Care Setting: A Multicenter Cohort Study

Purpose: Recent physician surveys show high self-reported rates of offering analgesia to children in the emergency department (ED). However, institutional audits of actual practice suggest sub-optimal analgesic administration persists. Reasons may include caregiver or patient refusal. Our objectives were to determine the proportions of children who were offered analgesia at home and children/caregivers who accepted analgesia in the ED. Methods: We conducted a multi-center prospective cohort study involving a caregiver survey and medical record review. We included children aged 4-17 years presenting to the ED with an acutely painful condition …