[Patient satisfaction with nursing practices about postoperative pain management: A systematic review]

The aim of this study was to investigate patient satisfaction with nursing practices regarding postoperative pain management.

A systematic review of the literature published between 2005 and 2015 was conducted, comprising a search of 7 databases: ScienceDirect, Turkish Medline, PsycINFO, Ovid, Prequest, Google Scholar, and the ULAKBIM Turkish Medical Database. Five articles were identified as eligible for review. The methodological quality of the studies was assessed using the Turkish version of the Joanna Briggs Institute-Meta Analysis of Statistics Assessment and Review Instrument (JBI -MAStARI) Critical Appraisal Checklist. The data were extracted using a standard data extraction form developed for this study, and subsequently evaluated.

In the articles eligible for this review, the study samples comprised patients with blunt or penetrating trauma sent to the emergency room (n=418) and those who underwent total knee replacement (n=120); heart, lung, or gastrointestinal system surgery (n=559); or open heart surgery (n=52). The maximum pain score was 7.20±1.95 (min-max: 0-10) and the maximum satisfaction score was 100%. The findings revealed that pharmacological methods were most frequently used for postoperative pain management and non-pharmacological methods were not used sufficiently by nurses. Nevertheless, the patients were satisfied with the postoperative pain relief nursing care.

In this systematic review, scientific evidence indicated that patient satisfaction with nursing practices related to postoperative pain management was high; however, non-pharmacological methods were used insufficiently in the last decade.