Nursing assessment of postoperative pain
Section: Originals
Authors
1Isabel del Puerto Fernández, 2Blanca Escobar Medina, 3Marta Gago Cabezuelo
Position
1Profesora Titular de Enfermería Médico-Quirúrgica. Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería y Fisioterapia de Toledo. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha 2Profesora Titular de Enfermería Psicosocial. Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería y Fisioterapia de Toledo. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha 3Profesora Asociada de Farmacología Clínica. Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería y Fisioterapia de Toledo. Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Contact address
Escuela Universitaria de Enfermería y Fisioterapia, Pza. Santo Domingo el Antiguo s/n. 45071 Toledo.
Abstract
This study has been done with the purpose of showing to nursingstudents the relevance of pain assessment and to train them in the useof a specific instrument.
A descriptive study was used to identify how nurses use instruments toassess pain, taking into consideration that without this assessment isnot possible to talk about the effectiveness of the treatment.
One hundred twenty one patients of different surgical specialties, 24hours after their operation, have been assessed using an instrumentadapted from McCaffery.
The results shown that instruments to measure pain are not used bynurses even in the cases which analgesia is prescribed by request.Therefore, the intensity of pain does not reflect a change in theprescription of analgesia, which in most cases is NSAIDs.
Conclusion: Plans for surgical patient care need to be reviewed andupdated.
Keywords:
pain; postoperative pain; nursing careassessment
Versión en Español
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