Music intervention study in abdominal surgery patients: challenges of an intervention study in clinical practice

Evidence-based nursing requires carefully designed interventions. This paper discusses methodological issues and explores practical solutions in the use of music intervention in pain management among adults after major abdominal surgery. There is a need to study nursing interventions that develop and test the effects of interventions to advanced clinical nursing knowledge and practice. There are challenges in carrying out intervention studies in clinical settings because of several interacting components and the length and complexity of the causal chains linking intervention with outcome. Intervention study is time-consuming and requires both researchers and participants' commitment to the study. Interdisciplinary and multiprofessional collaboration is also paramount. In this study, patients were allocated into the music group, in which patients listened to music 30 minutes at a time, or the control group, in which patients did not listen to any music during the same period.