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ATTITUDES AND KNOWLEDGE OF NURSING STAFF IN RELATION TO MANAGEMENT OF POSTOPERATIVE PAIN
Author(s) -
Chapman P. J.,
Ganendran A.,
Scott R. J.,
Basford K. E.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
australian and new zealand journal of surgery
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1445-2197
pISSN - 0004-8682
DOI - 10.1111/j.1445-2197.1987.tb01395.x
Subject(s) - medicine , legibility , clarity , medical prescription , pain management , nursing , nursing staff , postoperative pain , nursing management , pain control , analgesic , pain assessment , physical therapy , anesthesia , art , biochemistry , chemistry , visual arts
The effectiveness of pain control following surgery is notoriously difficult to assess, but objective assessment by nursing staff has been found to correlate reasonably well with subjective patient assessment. A study was designed to investigate the attitudes and knowledge of 86 qualified nursing staff in relation to postoperative pain management. Overall knowledge was sound to a point, but there were some obvious deficiencies in practical application; for example, 25% of staff would wait until a patient was in severe pain before using a prescribed (charted) analgesic. Additionally, almost three‐quarters of staff felt that, in general, postoperative patients received adequate pain relief, while the great majority felt that prescription writing could be improved, mainly by improved legibility and clarity of actual instructions. The results suggest that the aim of postoperative pain management—that is, the provision of adequate analgesia—may need to be more strongly defined in nursing education.