Description:
<jats:title>Summary</jats:title><jats:p>
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<jats:list-item><jats:p>This study uses a qualitative approach to explore patients' expectations and experiences of pain, factors contributing to the effective/ineffective management of their pain and strategies patients reported as helpful when experiencing pain. Ten patients on a mixed surgical ward at a District General Hospital in the south of England participated in the study.</jats:p></jats:list-item>
<jats:list-item><jats:p>Pain scores, using a visual analogue scale, were obtained for ‘expected’ pain pre‐operatively and ‘worst pain experienced’. A taped in‐depth interview exploring patients' experience of pain after surgery took place on the fifth post‐operative day.</jats:p></jats:list-item>
<jats:list-item><jats:p>Details of analgesia were also collected for the 5 days following surgery.</jats:p></jats:list-item>
<jats:list-item><jats:p>Patients expected pain after surgery but the intensity of the pain they experienced was often significantly greater than anticipated.</jats:p></jats:list-item>
<jats:list-item><jats:p>Lack of information, inadequate pain assessment and ineffective pain control contributed to this finding.</jats:p></jats:list-item>
<jats:list-item><jats:p>It is suggested that new pain technology, such as epidural and patient‐controlled analgesia, may not change the prevalence and incidence of pain unless the systems these technologies are placed within also change.</jats:p></jats:list-item>
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