Related Experiment Videos
Inhibition in expressing pain. A qualitative study among Dutch surgical breast cancer patients
1Helen Dowling Institute for Biopsychosocial Medicine, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
In this qualitative study, 26 white Dutch women were interviewed who had recently undergone breast cancer surgery. The interviews indicated that during their hospital stay many of them had hardly expressed their postoperative pain and had rarely asked for pain medication. Patients' conceptions of postoperative pain and analgesics, their insecurity and lack of assertiveness, and some suboptimal interactions with nurses seem to have been associated with their inhibition in reporting pain.
In this qualitative study, 26 white Dutch women were interviewed who had recently undergone breast cancer surgery. The interviews indicated that during their hospital stay many of them had hardly expressed their postoperative pain and had rarely asked for pain medication. Patients' conceptions of postoperative pain and analgesics, their insecurity and lack of assertiveness, and some suboptimal interactions with nurses seem to have been associated with their inhibition in reporting pain.