International journal of nursing studies
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Determinants of pain assessment by nurses.
In this replication study pain assessment and patient perception by nurses was studied in relation to patient characteristics and nurse characteristics. Nurses were randomly assigned to one of 24 descriptions of a hypothetical patient of constant age and unspecified sex. The 24 descriptions varied by duration of pain, presence of a physical pathology, diagnosis category, and depression symptoms. ⋯ Nursing experience seems also to be important in pain assessment. First-year student nurses attributed less pain to the hypothetical patient than third- and fourth-year student nurses and registered nurses. In addition they perceived the patient as more positive when physical pathology was present or when no symptoms of depression were present.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Effects of preoperative teaching on postoperative pain: a replication and expansion.
This study was designed to test the effectiveness of brief relaxation training on postoperative pain, replicating and extending a study of Flaherty and Fitzpatrick (1978). A two-group pre- and post-test experimental design was used to determine if vital signs, analgesic consumption, anxiety, self-reported incisional pain sensation and distress differ in postsurgical patients who have or have not received relaxation training. Seventy-two adult, elective abdominal surgery patients were randomly assigned to treatment groups. ⋯ Vital signs, analgesic consumption and self-reported pain sensation were not altered by relaxation training. These findings only partially agree with those of Flaherty and Fitzpatrick. Additional analyses by type of surgery (cholecystectomy and hysterectomy) showed hysterectomy subjects reported less pain sensation and distress and used less analgesics than cholecystectomy subjects.