THIS IS AN ARCHIVED PAGE - PAINLINK IS NO LONGER ACTIVE

A Tour of the Mayday PainLink Website

Public Website

1. PainLink Presents

During the last two years of the project, this feature was used to alert the public and participating PainLink sites to an institutional change activity being implemented in one or more PainLink sites. This was a way of keeping the public and our own members aware of both the little and big changes that PainLink teams make to move their institutions closer to alleviating pain for all patients. It also encouraged institutions to share information and strategies that worked to make pain relief a reality in their settings. Click here to see the topics archived in PainLink Presents.

2. Hot Off the Press

Hot Off the Press highlighted published information relevant to PainLink's mission of improving pain management using principles of institutional change. Sometimes an article on institutional change, a clinical protocol, or other innovation related to pain management in health care settings, was featured. At other times a guideline or position statement issued by a professional organization, or accreditation body that PainLinkers would find useful, would be the featured publication. Click here to view the archive of Hot Off The Press features.

3. Home

Most pain -- from acute post-operative pain to the pain endured by endstage cancer patients -- can be relieved. Although the science of pain management is well-established, few physicians and nurses have been adequately trained in the necessary skills, and many healthcare institutions face barriers in ensuring that pain is an important priority.

This website is a central part of a larger project in which Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) staff assist hospitals and other healthcare institutions in undertaking major improvements in how they assess and treat patients' pain. The goal of the project, entitled Mayday PainLink at EDC, is to use the Internet and other media to bridge the gap between knowledge of effective pain management procedures and their effective adoption and application in real-life clinical settings.

The home page presents an overview of the structure of the website.

4. Guidelines

This page leads you to guidelines, position statements, and other official statements published by organizations interested in pain management. For example, clicking on this button leads you to reproduction of the text of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses' Position Statement on Use of Placebos. You can also click on the home page for the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research where you can access their Clinical Practice Guidelines on acute pain, cancer pain, and low back pain.

5. Quiz

The quiz questions have been excerpted from the survey that was available to PainLink member sites (see "How to Join"). Quiz results include interpreted results from the quiz.

6. Resources

PainLink provides an online database of resources related to pain management. The following types of resources are included:

• Facts: Statistics about pain and pain management, suitable for including in speeches, press releases, and professional development sessions.
• Organizations: Organizations that can be contacted for specific resources and national meetings and standards.
• Videos: Useful for professional development and training for personnel and community members.
• Articles: References to selected current articles regarding pain and pain management.
• Websites: Links to websites with pain management related content.

7. Conferences

PainLink details upcoming conferences

8. Related Websites

PainLink provides links to related websites, some of which include website reviews.

9. Search

This button can be used to search PainLink's Resources page. Themes and keywords reflect PainLink's focus on pain management and institutional change.

10. Archives

This page contains the electronic archives of PainLink News, our newsletter; announcements of our online events; and links to past online discussions (for members only). Please feel free to browse the linked articles or to download a complete Acrobat version of the newsletter to read offline.

Member Website

This section of the site is password protected and available to PainLink Members only. (links in text are pages for public to sample)

1. Member Information

This page provides information about the health care institutions selected for participation in PainLink. Clinical and administrative staff in 56 institutions in 20 states are members of PainLink. Each institution has an interdisciplinary team committed to implementing PainLink's mission of adopting effective pain management practices to reduce the incidence and severity of pain experienced by individuals receiving care in these settings. PainLink's community includes Mentor Institutions, which have demonstrated excellence in one or more aspects of implementing institutional change in pain management.

2. Technical Assistance (TA)

Participating institutions receive standard services as well as individualized assistance. All institutions have access to the private pages of PainLink's website, including the e-mail discussion, and online events. Institutions are encouraged to administer the PainLink Clinician Survey to their staff to determine the level of clinicians pain management in their settings. Institutions that elect to use the survey return completed surveys to EDC, where the data are analyzed and reports are prepared. These reports, an interpretive guide, and graphics suitable for presentation are returned to the institution.

Technical assistance (TA) packets on a variety of pain-related topics are also sent to institutions. In addition, EDC's PainLink staff provide customized technical assistance based on needs identified by the PainLink team and survey results. Individualized services include phone consultation, conference calls, and problem-focused-resources.

3. Discussion

This is a Hypermail archive of the e-mail discussion that is continually in process among all our participating institutions. This archive allows the problem solving and strategy sharing that is integral to institutional change to occur online. You may sort these messages by subject, author, or date to learn about topics discussed (and how dynamic and supportive our online community is!).

4. Teaching Cases

This portion of the website features two teaching cases EDC prepared for interdisciplinary teams encountering important clinical issues. It also includes strategies for using the cases to lead discussions and for ongoing problem solving as part of the teaching sessions.

5. Action Plans

After each institution identifies its pain management needs, the PainLink staff work with the leadership teams to create action plans that will help achieve their institutional goals. The creation and implementation of these action plans is the heart of the entire program. This page contains links to a sample action plan, and to selected actual action plans from our first cohort of institutions. Please follow these links to observe each institution's different needs and strategies.

Last Updated: May 7, 2001