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Observation of pain assessment and management- the complexities of clinical practice

journal contribution
posted on 2002-11-01, 00:00 authored by Elizabeth ManiasElizabeth Manias, Mari BottiMari Botti, Tracey BucknallTracey Bucknall
• Pain assessment and management are complex issues that embrace physiological, emotional, cognitive, and social dimensions.

• This observational study sought to investigate nurse–patient interactions associated with pain assessment and management in hospitalized postsurgical patients in clinical practice settings.

• Twelve field observations were carried out on Registered Nurses' activities relating to pain with their assigned patients. All nurses were involved in direct patient care in one surgical unit of a metropolitan teaching hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Six observation times were identified as key periods for activities relating to pain, which included change of shift and high activity periods. Each observation period lasted 2 hours and was examined on two occasions.

• Four major themes were identified as barriers to effective pain management: nurses' responses to interruptions of activities relating to pain, nurses' attentiveness to patient cues of pain, nurses' varying interpretations of pain, and nurses' attempts to address competing demands of nurses, doctors and patients.

• These findings provide some understanding of the complexities impacting on nurses' assessment and management of postoperative pain. Further research using this observational methodology is indicated to examine these influences in more depth. This knowledge may form the basis for developing and evaluating strategic intervention programmes that analyse nurses' management of postoperative pain and, in particular, their administration of opioid analgesics.


History

Journal

Journal of clinical nursing

Volume

11

Issue

6

Pagination

724 - 733

Publisher

Wiley Interscience

Location

Malden, Mass.

ISSN

0962-1067

eISSN

1365-2702

Language

eng

Notes

Published Online: 11 Nov 2002

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2008, Blackwell Publishing Ltd

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