Credit UVA
Nursing Professor Virginia LeBaron has cared for cancer patients in this country and in places where pain medication is in short supply. She also nursed a family member who suffered pain during the later stages of cancer, and she knows how difficult it can be for the patient and the caregiver.
“When family caregivers are asked to rank or rate caregiving activities that they find most stressful, pain management is at the top of that list,” she says.
And it’s often provided at home rather than the hospital, so LeBaron set out to find easy ways to monitor patients and their surroundings – to look for patterns that could warn of increasing pain and allow early treatment.