Effective Management Of Post-Operative Pain Literature review

Effective Management Of Post-Operative Pain - Literature review Example Effective pain management not only reduces the stay of patients at the hospital but also reduces the cost involved. Pain management is considered as the second most common nursing intervention. It is however still a consistent problem faced and has not been adequately addressed yet. The recurrence and higher probability of pain after surgery indicates the overall significance of the problem faced by the medical professionals. Since last many decades, various studies have critically highlighted the inadequate nature of the post-operative pain management by the physicians as well as by the nurses. These studies not only highlight the inadequate knowledge of the medical professionals but also provide a critical insight into the attitude of nurses and medical professionals towards post-operative pain management. Since it is also the second most common cause of nursing intervention therefore it directly affects the way nurses perform their job. What is critical to note however is the fact that medical professionals including nurses lack the knowledge, education and face other barriers to manage the post-operative pain. This literature review will present a critical review of 10 articles on this topic using Critical Appraisal Skill Programme tool to critically evaluate the articles under study. Methodological Overview of Articles Rajeh et.al (2008) used a qualitative approach to understand and explore the perceptions and experience of nurses regarding post-operative pain management. By using semi-structured interviews from 26 nurses in Iranian educational hospitals, this study utilized constant comparative method to analyze the data. It has been suggested that there are widespread knowledge gaps which need to be addressed in order to effectively tackle post-operative pain management issues. Same approach has been undertaken by Blondal & Halldorsdottir (2009) also where through 20 dialogues with 10 experienced nurses were conducted to understand as to how nurses care patients suffering post-operative pain. This was a phenomenological study with focus on understanding the motivations of nurses in pain management and what actually restricts them to achieve the objective of relieving patient sufferings. A similar type of study was carried out by Subramian et. al (2011) by using semi-structured interviews of 21 nurses working in the critical care of the acute teaching healthcare trusts in UK. This study was qualitative and exploratory in nature and a framework analysis was performed. This study however, highlighted various challenges faced by the nurses in terms of their ability to provide pain management support to patients under critical care. Wilson (2007) aimed at understanding as to whether education actually results into better pain management capabilities of nurses or not. Wilson (2007) focused on understanding the influence of post-registration education and clinical experience could actually result into better management of pain. 100 questi onnaires were circulated by the researcher out of which 86 were returned. However, a sample of 72 was taken out of which 35 nurses were from hospice/oncology and 37 were from district hospitals (general). It has been argued that working environment tend to have relative greater influence on the ability of nurse to administer pain as compared to their knowledge and education suggesting that overall influences on nurses in terms of their ability to manage pain are complex in nature. Richards (2007) conducted a qualitative study to understand the influence of experience on the nurses’ ability to actually manage post-operative p