A study completed in 1999 showed that elderly people who watched a slide show teaching postoperative pain management and pain communication skills before their joint replacement surgery had significantly less pain than those who did not receive this preoperative teaching. The study was done in collaboration with clinical nurse specialists from St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center. McDonald hopes the video will be a way of conveying some of the pain management information gathered during these studies to a wider audience. The development of patient-controlled analgesics has been a breakthrough, according to McDonald, and allows those recovering to administer their own pain medication through an intravenous pump. McDonald emphasizes in the video that it is rare to become addicted to pain medication taken for postoperative pain.
Many patients still rely on pain medication administered at set times or as needed by nurses.
Don't wait until the pain is severe before asking for more medication. She also suggests other procedures that may enhance a patient's sense of well being and reduce pain, including relaxation techniques, deep breathing, massage, and distraction - watching television or listening to music. All of these are demonstrated on the video. Patients may be too stoic, believing they should not complain or take up too much of the caregiver's time. Others may communicate ineffectively, omitting important pain information such as the location or intensity of the pain.