What really matters in pain management for terminally ill cancer patients in Taiwan.
The paradox of patients who are in pain yet satisfied with their pain management has been documented repeatedly. Pain relief constitutes only one part of patient satisfaction with pain management. The quality of cancer pain management in Taiwan has not been evaluated from the patient's perspective. A cross-sectional design was used to survey 1,370 terminally ill cancer patients in Taiwan to characterize the status of, and satisfaction with cancer pain management by investigating the relative importance of pain intensity, pain relief experiences, and clinicians' pain management practices. Cancer patients with pain had unsatisfactory pain relief within one week of admission (47.4 percent) and inadequate pain medication (23.6 percent). However, these patients perceived that clinicians adequately informed them about pain treatment. Patient satisfaction with pain management was primarily determined by examining the perceptions that medication dose was just right, responses to requests for pain medication were prompt, and understandable and consistent information about pain treatment was offered. In conclusion, Taiwanese cancer patients' satisfaction with pain management was influenced more by perceived pain management practices than by pain relief itself.
Graduate School of Nursing, Chang Gung University, 259 Wen-Hwa 1st Road, Kwei-Shan, Tao-Yuan, Taiwan 333. sttang@mail.cgu.edu.tw
Siew Tzuh
ST
Tang
Woung-Ru
WR
Tang
Tsang-Wu
TW
Liu
Che-Pin
CP
Lin
Jen-Shi
JS
Chen
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000150:complications*; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D017060:Patient Satisfaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013624:Taiwan; D013727:Terminal Care / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000523:psychology*; D019452:Terminally Ill / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data