Journal of advanced nursing
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Accurate pain assessment is vital for good medical care, and yet the literature indicates that nurses often provide inaccurate and biased estimates of their patients' pain. The following paper reviews the methods used to assess nurses' accuracy, and reasons offered for the errors observed. Practical options for improving pain assessment and pain management are discussed.
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Comparative Study
How accurately do nurses perceive patients' needs? A comparison of general and psychiatric settings.
This paper examines to what extent nurses' perceptions of patients' needs correspond to the patients' views of their own needs. A questionnaire was designed to assess patients' emotional and physical needs in general medical wards and in acute psychiatric wards. ⋯ The nurses' inability to perceive patients' needs on an individual basis is consistent with other studies which suggest that nurses use stereotypes when perceiving patients' needs. Implications for nursing care are discussed.