Changing acute pain management outcomes in surgical patients

Patient outcome studies indicate that patients accept pain as part of hospitalization. The majority of hospitalized patients who report experiencing pain are recovering from surgical intervention. To achieve successful outcomes, a comprehensive multidisciplinary effort must begin preoperatively and continue through discharge. The perioperative period is an essential link in effective pain management, and perioperative nurses are key in helping direct the care of surgical patients before, during, and after surgical procedures. Pain relief and the patients satisfaction with care frequently are used to measure pain management outcomes. This article examines the results of a secondary analysis of a subset of surgical patients drawn from a larger data set that was collected during two studies in urban and rural hospitals. It focuses on two outcomes, namely characteristics of pain and patient satisfaction with pain management after surgery. These outcomes were measured using the American Pain Society patient outcome questionnaire and the pain management index. Correlational, descriptive, and regression analyses indicate that postoperative management of patients' pain in these studies was less than optimal. From this new understanding, strategies for effective pain management of surgical patients are recommended.