Cardiac nurses' knowledge, assessment practices and management of postoperative pain

• Main Author: Maglanque, Maria Jannette
• Language: English
• Published: University of British Columbia 2017
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/63761

Background: Pain is an important stressor for postoperative patients and remains an issue this present day. Postoperative patients continue to report moderate to severe postoperative pain following cardiac surgery. Acute postoperative pain that is not treated appropriately could potentially progress into postsurgical chronic pain which would significantly impact an individual’s overall quality of life. Nurses are at the frontlines providing direct patient care and play a major role in pain assessment and pain management, however, barriers exist that prevent postoperative patients from receiving effective pain relief. Purpose: To understand cardiac nurse’ postoperative pain knowledge, pain assessment practices and pain management in the context of cardiac surgical patients. Sample/Methods: This was a mixed methods design that was conducted on two cardiac surgical units in a tertiary hospital located in British Columbia. There were 63 nurses who accessed the online survey. Results: The findings revealed nurses have moderate pain knowledge with scores ranging from 56.1% to 91.1%. Nurses education level, experience level and age had no impact on their knowledge scores. Conclusions: A majority of nurses reported adequate pain knowledge in assessment and management, however, knowledge gaps exist in terms of pain assessment, neuropathic pain and chronic pain. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Nursing, School of === Graduate