Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Pain is a nursing sensitive indicator and yet pain is often not well managed in both hospital and ambulatory settings. Improving nurse knowledge and attitudes about pain may translate to improved patient outcomes. The objective of this study was to investigate knowledge and attitudes about pain (KAP) in nurses who work in diverse settings, professional and personal characteristics that predict KAP, and whether KAP correlated with patient satisfaction according to Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers (HCAHPS). ⋯ Certified nurses scored higher on the KAP survey, consistent with other studies. This study suggests that having more knowledge and better attitudes about pain may improve patient satisfaction of pain. Further studies are needed that link knowledge and attitudes about pain to patient outcomes.
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Optimal pain management is a priority in effective nursing care. Lack of sufficient pain knowledge associated with inadequate pain management has been proved. However, the intention, defined as the predictor of behavior, regarding pain management remains unknown. ⋯ Overall, this study identified intention as an important factor in effective pain treatment. Chinese nursing students have negative attitudes and insufficient intention to pain management. Therefore, hospitals and universities in China should manage these factors to improve nursing students' practice regarding pain management.
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To improve function and quality of life in patients with chronic pain, a prevalent and costly condition, an understanding of the relationships among well-being, physical activity, depression, and life purpose with pain is needed. Because of the role loss experienced by people with chronic pain, activities such as volunteering could have an important role in improving health and well-being. In one study, chronic pain patients who participated in volunteer activities reported both decreased pain and "a sense of purpose." The aim of this study is to test the relationships among pain and well-being, physical activity, depression, and life purpose and then to determine if volunteering activities mediated or moderated these relationships. ⋯ Volunteer activities did have a significant mediating effect on the relationship between pain and depression; approximately 9% of the relationship between pain and depression can be accounted for by volunteering. Moderation by volunteering was found between pain and life purpose. We identified important relationships among pain, volunteering, and health outcomes and found that volunteering has a role in improving depressive symptoms and life purpose in women with pain.
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Evidence to support the argument that general anesthesia (GA) with paravertebral block (PVB) provides better pain relief for mastectomy patients than GA alone is contradictory. The aim of this study was to explore pain and analgesia after mastectomy with or without PVB during acute inpatient recovery. A retrospective study was conducted in a single hospital providing specialist cancer services in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. ⋯ Less than 6% of patients on any POD were administered multimodal anlagesics. PMI scores indicate some pain in the context of receiving weak and strong opioids for GA patients and more frequent use of nonopioid analgesics in PVB patients during recovery. These findings highlight the need for data describing patterns of analgesic administration in addition to reports of postoperative pain to determine the most effective means of avoiding postoperative pain in patients who require mastectomy.