J Gerontol Nurs
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1. The inadequate management of acute postoperative pain among adults is well documented. ⋯ Nurses' ineffective approaches to the management of pain have been attributed to inappropriate fears of addiction and respiratory depression, rigid attitudes regarding what constitutes adequate pain relief, and misunderstandings about the physiologic and psychologic components of pain. 3. The results of this study support McCaffery's (1989) finding that nurses do not understand the effective use of narcotics in relation to pain management.