Positions of French Nurses Regarding the use of Hypnotherapy to Relieve Pain in Postoperative Settings

Abstract

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to carry out a detailed mapping of the different personal positions of French nurses concerning the practice of hypnotherapy. Factorial design was used to assess the impact of 4 situational factors: type of postoperative care and degree of pain associated with it (chemotherapy, wound cleansing and bandaging, or body grooming that leads to pain on mobilization); whether paracetamol (also known as acetaminophen) was administrated along with hypnosis or not; professional credentials of the hypnotherapist; and patient’s identity (adult, young person, elderly person, or young person with learning difficulties). A combination of scenario technique and cluster analysis was implemented. Participants were 91 registered nurses and, for comparison, 19 nurse’s aides, 9 physicians, 5 psychologists, and 77 laypersons. Seven qualitatively different positions were found. Only a minority of French nurses were convinced that hypnotherapy is an indisputably acceptable practice in postoperative care. Most of them were indifferent to the issue as long as pain medication was used. Nurses’ views appeared to be similar to physicians’ views.