Perceptions of surgical nurses regarding the post-operative pain management of patients after total hip or knee replacement surgery

摘要

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the surgical nurses’ perceptionsabout the management of post-operative pain and strategies employed in managementof pain in patients who have undergone total hip or knee replacement surgery in KingAbdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.Qualitative, exploratory-descriptive research design was applied. Purposive nonprobabilitysampling was used and data collected by means of audio-recorded semistructuredindividual interviews. Data saturation was reached after interviewing twentysurgical nurses. Themes and categories emerged from adopting Creswell’s (2013) “dataanalysis spiral”.One of the key findings was that patients reportedly experience moderate to severe painduring the first three days after surgery, before it is controlled on mild to moderate levelsor before the patient is pain free. Conclusions were drawn, and one of the major oneswas that multimodal strategies are employed by the surgical to manage post-operativepain. Recommendations were also made from findings of this study, and one keyrecommendation was that expatriate nurses to have access to Arabic speakers toovercome language barriers.