Quality of pain counselling for orthopaedic patients in the hospital: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

BackgroundEarlier studies demonstrate that pain counselling for orthopaedic patients benefits quality of life and adherence to care. AimThe aim of this study was to describe the quality of pain counselling for orthopaedic patients in a Finnish central hospital. MethodsA cross-sectional design was used. Data were collected from orthopaedic patients (n = 71) using the Quality of Counselling Instrument (CQI) and analysed using descriptive statistics including frequencies and percentages. FindingsMost participants were women (67%), and the mean age was 52 years. Non-pharmacological pain relief was rated as inadequate (69%). Counselling of pain treatment was satisfactory for about 38% of orthopaedic patients, but 20% of participants had not received medication counselling. Pain counselling was not always patient-centered (50%), nor was interaction (48%) and goal-oriented counselling (49%). Staff skills and knowledge of orthopaedic patients' pain counselling was satisfactory, although there were differences between patients with/without previous experience (p = 0.047) and different education (p = 0.008). ConclusionPain counselling is an important part of orthopaedic patients’ treatment and healing processes. This study identified that there is lack of use of non-pharmacological pain relief, and counselling of pain should be implemented in a more patient-centered way. Inpatient counselling should use more personalised approaches with diverse counselling methods.