The effect of an education program on pain management and post –operative outcome of Chinese patients with traumatic fracture limb undergoing surgery

Abstract

Background Pain is perceived as stressful and good pain management contributes to better treatment outcome. This paper aimed to report the effect of the education program on short term outcomes of patients with fracture limb and surgery. This education program was developed based on previous work of a qualitative study, literature review and a pilot study. The education program consists of 2 education sessions to enhance patient’s knowledge, correct mis- conception and perform breathing relaxation exercise regularly for pain management. Method A non-equivalent control group pretest-posttest design (quasi-experimental) was employed. Patients from 2 hospitals who met the inclusion criteria (age ≥ 18, ambulatory before injury, with fracture limb and undergoing surgery were invited for the study. Two hospitals were randomly assigned to either the control (usual care) or experimental group (usual care and 2 sessions of education program as intervention). Patients’ short term outcomes were evaluated by pain score, physical function, sleep satisfaction, anxiety and self –efficacy scale in pain management. Data was collected at baseline before surgery, day 2, 4 and 7 after surgery.

Result: 136 patients completed the study with 70 in experimental group & 66 in control group. There were homogenous in baseline variables (age, sex, mechanism of injury & physical status). The results showed that patients in the experimental group experienced lower level of pain level, anxiety, better sleeping satisfaction and better self efficacy in pain management. However, there were no statically significant different in physical functioning outcomes. Conclusion: an education program could reduce anxiety; promote better sleep and better self efficacy in self pain management during their first 7 days for patients having traumatic fracture and surgery. The findings highlight the essence of education program as an essential component for nursing care to prepare the fracture patients for surgery.