Abstract
p AIN IS ONE OF the most common symptoms faced by postoperative patients. It is often assumed that pain in postoperative patients decreases over time, although this has not always proven true. For example, Melzack, Abbott, Zachon, Mulder, and Davis (1987) found that a substantial portion of postoperative patients (31%) had pain that persisted after the fourth postoperative day. However, nurses typically tend to decrease the amount of narcotics administered for postoperative pain over time, based On the assumption that pain in all postoperative patients decreases as the patient recovers. The purpose of this study was to examine whether pain decreased between the first and third postoperative days in abdominal surgery patients and to identify what words patients used to describe the quality of their pain.
Published Version
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