Thurayya Eid
King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Title: Patients’ and nurses’ differences in postoperative pain scores in Saudi Arabia
Biography
Biography: Thurayya Eid
Abstract
Introduction: More than 50% of hospitalized patients experienced moderate to severe pain following surgery. Patients’ self-reporting of pain is considered the most reliable form of pain assessment. While past research has shown nurses often underestimate or overestimate patients’ pain score, there has been a lack of work in this area conducted in Saudi Arabia. Aim: To determine nurses’ judgments about patients’ postoperative pain intensities. Method: The study was conducted in surgical wards at a tertiary teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia. A 10 cm Visual Analogue Scale was used to rate the patient’s pain on two occasions: at 4 hours pre-observation and 4 hours post-observation. Data were analyzed using Bland-Altman measurements of agreement. Results: Participants were 137 nurse-patients pairs; adult patients had undergone various surgical procedures. Nurses’ first language was different from the patients, and nurses tended to not be Arabic-speaking. At pre- and post-observation, the mean differences were 2.05 cm (SD=2.0, SE=0.17) and 1.96 cm (SD=2.41, SE=0.2) consequently; indicated a significant disagreement between patients’ and nurses’ ratings of patients’ post-operative pain. More than 85.0% patients experienced from mild to severe post-operative pain. Nurses’ judgment about assessing patients’ postoperative pain often involved the use of simple questioning. Communication difficulties between Arabic speaking patients and non-Arabic speaking nurses were prominent. Conclusion: Communication problem need to be addressed for accurately determining patients’ pain intensity following surgery in Saudi Arabia.