Progress in cardiovascular nursing
-
Prog Cardiovasc Nurs · Jan 2000
Multicenter StudyThe emergency department experience of chest pain patients and their intention to delay care seeking for acute myocardial infarction.
This study investigated how patients' emergency department experience was related to their intention to delay action in response to future symptoms of acute myocardial infarction. A sample of 426 persons admitted to the emergency department with a chief complaint of chest pain and released from the emergency department were contacted by telephone. Patients were queried about their affective response to the emergency department experience, their satisfaction with emergency department staff communication, their intention to delay prompt action for acute myocardial infarction symptoms in the future, the influence of others in the decision to seek care, and medical and demographic status. ⋯ The results also showed that those patients who were prompted by health professionals to go to the emergency department were less likely to report intentions to delay for future symptoms (p = 0.036). It is important that emergency department staff reassure chest pain patients who are sent home that they did the right thing by coming to the emergency department for their symptoms. Providers need to be particularly sensitive to feelings of embarrassment.
-
Prog Cardiovasc Nurs · Jan 1995
Multicenter StudyPain, pain relief and accuracy of their recall after cardiac surgery.
This study investigated how much pain and pain relief cardiac surgery patients experience in Intensive Care Units (ICUs), and the accuracy of their recall later, during hospital recovery. Thirty-nine patients completed the first interview in the ICU, and 31 of them answered recall questions later. The worst pain patients experienced in the ICU was moderately high, and patients reported 65% pain relief from analgesics administered. ⋯ Although recall of ICU pain is less than accurate, ICU cardiac surgical patients have episodes of substantial pain. Despite advances in pain management, patients report that pain relief is frequently incomplete and that they do not remember receiving analgesics. A more proactive approach to pain management by health care professionals, which includes informing patients when they are receiving analgesics, may help to improve pain relief in cardiac surgical patients.