Patients' experience of postoperative pain management in a Rwandan hospital surgical wards

Abstract

Introduction: Pain is one of the sources of discomfort among admitted patients, especially those that have had surgery. Effective management of patients' pain has been linked to significant post operative outcomes and overall perception of the quality of care received. Patients are expected to experience pain within reasonable limits and should be able to receive and appreciate care provided towards pain release. Despite of this understanding, available literature continues to indicate that post-operative pain management is still unsatisfactory. The phenomena of pain management are new in our setting. There is limited knowledge of the experience of patients of postoperative pain management in Rwanda. This study assessed patients' experience of postoperative pain management Methods and Findings: The study was quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional. It was carried out on 172 postoperative patients admitted in surgical wards of a referral Hospital in Rwanda. At 5% type I error (p<0.05) a systematic random sampling was used to get sample and data was collected using adapted American Pain Society –Patient Outcome Questionnaire Revised(APS-POQ) to which a validity test was made and a reliability of 0.764(Cronbach‟s a coefficient) founded .Using descriptive statistics data was analyzed in SPSS version20, interpretation and correlation among variable were performed. The results indicated that majority 96.3%) participants experienced pain postoperatively. Of those who experienced postoperative pain the category falls from moderate to severe respectively 36.1% and 30.2% (3.2±0.62).a big number of 98 (57.0%) experienced pain relief within 24hrs postoperatively, with however 104(60.5%)(1.4±0.49) rating overall pain management as inadequate and 105(61.0%) dissatisfied with pain management. Conclusion: The patients experience reflects the occurrences and events that happen across continuum of care. The results indicate that most postoperative patients experienced moderate to severe pain and are dissatisfied with pain management rendered. These findings are a signal to the gaps in meeting patients postoperative care needs. The findings provide a practical implication for improved quality of care both at individual healthcare provider and system levels. This calls for further research into organizational readiness and the level of knowledge and skills for effective postoperative pain management.