Registered Nurse at RMH conducting pain study for PhD

Details

Created on Tuesday, 08 May 2012 11:34

After 30 years of nursing, 21 of which have been spent working in Intensive Care, Sheila O’Keefe-McCarthy RN has seen a lot of patients in pain.

As a nurse, Sheila gives her patients “hands on” care, but as a PhD candidate at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, she wants to learn more about the pain her patients are in – and what we’re doing about it.

In June 2011, Sheila began a cardiac pain study at Ross Memorial Hospital, under the supervision of the University’s Dr. Michael McGillion. RMH Internist Dr. Jeremy Jones is the clinical consultant on the study. The study involves patients who come to the hospital with chest pain. After the patients are seen in the Emergency Department and are classified as “non-emergent”, Sheila is notified, and she visits the patient, explaining her study and asking if he or she would like to participate.

Sheila interviews the patients, asking them to rate their cardiac pain intensity and their level of anxiety, while they wait for diagnostic tests and transfer for diagnostic cardiac catheterization. By learning from the experts – the patients – Sheila hopes to document their pain experiences in order to better understand current pain management and where more focus is needed.

Men and women who are suffering from acute coronary syndromes can have different symptoms and pain. Sheila hopes that documenting this information will shed more light on warning signs that are present weeks or months before people suffer angina or a heart attack.

Sheila will be collecting data until the end of June 2012, at which time she’ll begin analyzing the information. She hopes that her work might some day change the standard of practice for the assessment and management of cardiac pain and related anxiety.

Sheila says that her years of nursing have taught her that patients’ pain could often be managed better, and waiting for pain relief can be detrimental. Acute pain that is not managed can become persistent pain, impacting patients’ daily lives, their work, even their mental health.

“By conducting this pain study, I hope to blend 30 years of experience with my ability to effect change at the bedside.”

Sheila received her Diploma of Nursing at George Brown College, her Bachelor of Science from Ryerson University and her Masters Degree from the University of Toronto.