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Communicating pain and pain management needs after surgery

D D McDonald1, J McNulty, K Erickson

  • 1University of Connecticut, School of Nursing, Storrs 06269-2059, USA. dmcdonal@uconnvm.uconn.edu

Applied Nursing Research : ANR
|June 8, 2000
PubMed

This descriptive study explored how patients communicate their pain and pain management needs after surgery. Thirty postoperative patients were interviewed. The majority described avoiding or delaying communicating their pain at some point during their hospitalization. Reasons for decreased pain communication included not wanting to complain; not wanting to take the provider away from other patients; avoiding unpleasant analgesic side effects; and not wanting to take "drugs." Postoperative patients may be unclear about their role in pain management. Pain management communication problems identified in this study could be used to design intervention studies to improve pain communication and consequent pain relief.

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