[Process for implementing a pain assessment scale for patients with brain injuries: description of a project methodology based on the Integrated Model of Consultation].

Background : in a neurosurgery unit, nurses selected the Critical Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) based on evidence to assess pain in brain-injured patients. However, months after implementation, nursing managers have observed an underutilization.Objectives : support a care team to overcome the pitfalls encountered during the implementation of the CPOT scale for brain-injured patients in neurosurgery unit.

[Head trauma patients and their life course].

A traumatic brain injury constitutes a complex treatment situation. Nurses are on the frontline having to assume a difficult position between idealism and fatalism with regard to the care pathway and quality of life. Taking a long-term approach to the care and systemised feedback from the patients form simple and economical levers for improvement.

[Concepts boosting the clinical impact in early neurological rehabilitation].

Vaudois university hospital in Lausanne, Switzerland, has an acute neurological rehabilitation unit. An interdisciplinary team cares for patients with brain injuries after their transfer from intensive care. In this context, nurses base their practice on different concepts and techniques for introducing early neurological rehabilitation into each care procedure.