Patients with protracted pain: a survey conducted at the London Hospital

Abstract

This study of 13 patients with protracted pain was carried out at The London Hospital by a professional group to see how patients regarded their own pain and the efforts of doctors and nurses to relieve it. The attitudes of the doctors and nurses were also studied, and the results, despite the limitations of the survey, suggest that: 1) Patients' expectations are often too low, as indicated by the unanimous praise for both doctors and nurses, despite in many cases their still being in pain. 2) There is room for improvement in the use of analgesics in patients with protracted pain as indicated by the high proportion of 'as-required' prescriptions. 3) Doctors do not appreciate fully that the effective analgesic dose varies from patient to patient, as indicated by the presence of remittent pain in patients receiving analgesics regularly every four hours. 4) Nurses accept the presence of unrelieved pain in patients too readily, as indicated by the practice of confining enquiry about pain to drug rounds and by ignoring non-verbal communication. 5) Nurses do not appreciate their potential as agents of pain relief as indicated by their failure to emphasize their specific contribution as nurses. 6) There is a need to modify current teaching about pain and its relief in both medical and nursing schools.