Perceptions of surgical nurses regarding the post-operative pain management of patients after total hip or knee replacement surgery

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the surgical nurses’ perceptions about the management of post-operative pain and strategies employed in management of pain in patients who have undergone total hip or knee replacement surgery in King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Qualitative, exploratory-descriptive research design was applied. Purposive nonprobability sampling was used and data collected by means of audio-recorded semistructured individual interviews. Data saturation was reached after interviewing twenty surgical nurses. Themes and categories emerged from adopting Creswell’s (2013) “data analysis spiral”. One of the key findings was that patients reportedly experience moderate to severe pain during the first three days after surgery, before it is controlled on mild to moderate levels or before the patient is pain free. Conclusions were drawn, and one of the major ones was that multimodal strategies are employed by the surgical to manage post-operative pain. Recommendations were also made from findings of this study, and one key recommendation was that expatriate nurses to have access to Arabic speakers to overcome language barriers.