Edinburgh Pain Assessment Tool (EPAT©) Study

The EPAT package consists of an education programme, which deals with the known common barriers to effective pain control and the bedside pain tool. The pain tool is uniquely incorporated into the vital signs chart to enable a systematic approach to cancer pain assessment and review. EPAT consists of 2 steps: step 1 is a colour-coded pain assessment on the bedside vital signs chart. Patients with moderate or severe pain on step 1 will progress to to step 2, which helps to identify the aetiology of the pain, screening for opioid side effects and is linked via flags to simple management plans. The intervention will be delivered to the clusters randomised to the intervention, after collection of baseline data (pre-intervention data) on 50 patients.