The quality of nursing care in postoperative pain management

Background. Each patient after surgery feels pain, which is an experience individually perceived and interpreted by the patient. The degree of pain intensity depends on many factors, among others, type of personality, individual sensitivity, duration and location including the quality of nursing care. Objectives. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of nursing care in postoperative pain management. Material and methods. The study was conducted on 180 hospitalized patients in northern Poland in the period from June to July 2014. The study was conducted with the use of the Polish version of Scale Clinical Quality Indicators for the Treatment of Postoperative Pain and Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire with the Quality of Nursing Care. Results. Analysis of the data indicates that the most numerous group of patients were women -81.67%, men -18.33%. Respondents regarded the standard of nursing care as average (the mean score was 56.67 with the scale range 14-70 points). What they valued most was a concern and respect for the patient (mean 4.54). Conclusions. The standard of nursing care in postoperative pain management was assessed as average, which proves the necessity of its monitoring and improvement. Education of nurses in the field of postoperative pain, its monitoring, assessment and the ways of its alleviation, may improve the quality of nursing care.