Transforming Care to Evidence-Based Practice With Scripted Messages: An Improvement Project for Pain Management in Outpatient Surgical Patients.

Background: Outpatient surgeries are common and most patients experience pain postoperatively requiring nursing attention to pain management. Scripting, recommended for consistent, targeted communication to improve patient satisfaction, has limited evidence to support its use.

Aims: To explore the effect of scripted messages on self-reported pain control and patient satisfaction with care in outpatient surgical patients.