Abstract
An important question to nurses and physicians working with patients experiencing pain due to advanced cancer is how to provide relief with minimal adverse effects. Using a quasi- experimental research design, data were collected from 30 patients with cancer in chronic pain, a significant family member, and an associated staff nurse regarding the variables of pain, confusion, drowsiness, and nausea before the patient was started on oral morphine solution and after four days of taking oral morphine solution. The evaluation instrument was a tool developed by Melzack and Mount.2 Pain and nausea were significantly decreased. The slight increase in drowsiness and decrease in confusion were not significant. The results support the scheduled use of morphine solution in individualized doses as well as an awareness of etiology of factors involved with the symptoms of confusion, drowsiness, and nausea.
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