title: Nursing evaluation of the efficacy of analgesic delivery in post operative pain.
abstract: To evaluate nursing management of post-operative pain and nausea in adult patients. To ascertain patterns of pain medication and correlate these with the quality of pain relief achieved. The progress of 22 adult patients was recorded for three days post-operatively. Pain was assessed at rest and on activity three times a day using visual analogue scales. Nausea levels were assessed similarly. All analgesics and antiemetics administered were recorded. There was a wide range of variation in the administration of medications and consequently a wide range of effectiveness. A significant proportion of patients showed unacceptably high levels of pain indicating undertreatment. Patients and nurses had conflicting expectations of who should initiate the request for pain relief medication.
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000700:Analgesics / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007260:Infusion Pumps; D007273:Injections, Intramuscular; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital / Q000592:standards*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000451:nursing; D010465:Perception
chemical_list: D000700:Analgesics