Measuring the quality of children's postoperative pain management: initial validation of the child/parent Total Quality Pain Management (TQPM) instruments.

Abstract

Quality improvement measurement instruments for pediatric postoperative pain management are virtually nonexistent. Without standardized instruments to measure pediatric pain management outcomes, practitioners are hampered in their efforts to improve the quality of pain management for children. In this study, instruments for children (8--12 years) and parents were developed and tested to measure the quality of children's postoperative pain management. The child (Child TQPM) and parent (Parent TQPM) Total Quality Pain Management instruments were tested with 50 parent/child dyads across two large treatment centers. The pain rating scale modified for these instruments demonstrated good criterion validity with the well established Varni/Thompson Pediatric Pain Questionnaire Visual Analogue Scale. Parent--child agreement was described for responses across instruments. Construct validity was examined through selected inter-item relationships. Psychometric analyses support the initial measurement properties of the pediatric TQPM instruments.