Rating Strategies at the Outpatient Level for Coping with Chronic Pain in Persons with Cancer

Pain is understood currently as an unpleasant symptom that arises from a person's interaction with his/her environment and with themselves, and it is the nurse's responsibility to assess pain in the interest of instituting specific action to cope with it. Objective: Assess strategies for coping with chronic pain in persons with cancer in a multidimensional way, as part of physical and emotional processes. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study. The Spanish- language version of the Chronic Pain Coping Questionnaire (CSQ) was applied between June and October 2010 to a sample of 117 persons ages 18 and over who have cancer of diverse etiology and no alteration in their mental state. The data were processed through SPSS. Face and conceptual validity for Colombia was done. Results: Application of the CSQ produced scores for the factors included in the questionnaire and allowed for a correlation with socio-demographic variables. Persons use coping strategies related to the categories of hope (mean of 5.1), self-instruction (mean of 4.33) and cognitive distraction (mean of 4.9); that is, confidence, support and vision of a future without pain. Catastrophization (mean of 3.9) and faith and prayer (mean of 5. 23) stand out as behavior reflecting a certain inability to cope. Conclusions: The study allowed for an evaluation of behavior to cope with chronic pain in the stated dimensions; however, behavior indicative of inability to cope persists.