Factors that influence the quality of pain management in patients with skin traction

Abstract

BackgroundPain management is a systematic multidimensional process with differing approaches. Investigating the factors that affect the quality of pain management may provide nurses with ideas, suggestions, and trends that target improvements in the pain management experience among orthopaedic patients. AimsTo assess the elements of the quality of pain management and identify factors that significantly predict higher quality pain management in patients with skin traction. MethodsA descriptive correlational design was used to recruit a convenience sample of 116 patients. The revised American Pain Society Patient Outcome Questionnaire was used to explore the quality of pain management. ResultsPatients suffered from severe pain for more than 64% of the time during the first 24 h after the skin traction was applied. The uncontrolled pain negatively affected patients’ abilities to carry out activities in bed, fall asleep, and stay asleep. The quality of pain management indicators using a scale of one to 10 were: “pain severity" = 5.93, “pain interference" = 5.01, “side effects of medications" = 1.5”, and “satisfaction about care" = 6.2”. ConclusionsThe quality of pain management for fracture patients on skin traction was not optimum in this study. The uncontrolled pain negatively affected patients’ physical status and general wellbeing.