Postoperative Pain Management: A Bedside Perspective

PURPOSE: Postoperative pain management is an ongoing challenge in surgical care, during which inadequate relief can contribute to postoperative complications, and nurses are key figures in this process. The aim of the present study was to gain knowledge of how nurses provide postoperative pain management for women undergoing major surgery for endometriosis. DESIGN: An ethnographic field study, consisting of semi-structured interviews and participant observations, was conducted in a setting of 2 gynecological units within a large Scandinavian university hospital. METHOD: The participants were mainly nurses and patients. The overall focus for the field observations and interviews was on how the participants interacted and made care decisions concerning pain. The analysis focused on nurse-patient interaction in postoperative bedside care. A principal theme, pain-related nursing practice emerged, together with the sub-themes nurse-patient interaction, interpretation and assessment of pain and pain management, which represented a circular process, identified in bedside practice. CONCLUSIONS: To some extend the postoperative pain management was influenced by unexpressed health beliefs and routine actions, and patient involvement was not prominent. Furthermore, the existing guidelines for pain management did not seem useful to the nurses. CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: There is a need to develop a new and more practice-oriented postoperative pain management, in ways that also integrate the patient experience.