Improving Patient Education for Peripheral Nerve Block Catheters: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Peripheral nerve block (PNB) catheters are a key component of outpatient pain management, but inadequate discharge education can lead to misuse and patient frustration.

To fill this gap, researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine introduced an updated educational pamphlet, resulting in a 30% reduction in patient calls and improved adherence to multimodal analgesia protocols. This drop in patient outreach occurred within the first 2 weeks of rolling out the revised educational materials and was attributed to improved patient understanding of nerve block expectations, bolus use, and multimodal analgesic regimens. Researchers presented these findings at the American Academy of Pain Medicine PainConnect 2025 annual meeting in Austin, TX.

The efficacy of PNBs for outpatient surgical procedures depends not only on technical placement but also on patient adherence to supportive care regimens and proper catheter use following discharge. Prior to this intervention, inappropriate or inadequate discharge education led to frequent patient confusion, mismanagement of analgesia, and overuse or underuse of the catheter system, according to the researchers. Patients often misattributed the expected decrease in anesthetic intensity (from intraoperative 0.5% ropivacaine to postoperative 0.2%) to catheter failure and failed to use adjunct analgesics like acetaminophen or NSAIDs as advised, resulting in premature use of opioids.

The intervention focused on distributing an updated PNB catheter education pamphlet in both digital and physical formats at discharge. The revised guide emphasized expected changes in analgesic effect (the “step-down” effect), importance of the multimodal regimen, appropriate use of the bolus function, and catheter removal timing (within 3 to 4 days unless otherwise instructed). The pamphlet also included an FAQ section that mirrored the common issues fielded by the regional anesthesia team during post-op follow-up. This material was designed to reinforce in-person education provided in the post-anesthesia care unit and during postoperative day 1 and 4 check-ins​.

Following implementation, patients reported that the FAQ portion of the pamphlet was particularly helpful in reinforcing verbal instructions.

“Using the updated regional PNB patient guide pamphlet, both digital and physical formats, have helped reinforce an appropriate utilization of PNB catheters,” the authors concluded.

Reference
Ravi M, Nasiri M. Improving discharge education for peripheral nerve block catheters. Presented at: PainConnect 2025, American Academy of Pain Medicine Annual Meeting; April 3-6, 2025; Austin, TX. https://painconnect.org/.