Patients who experienced the highest postoperative pain levels also had the longest hospital stays, according to a study by Johns Hopkins School of Nursing faculty member Fannie Gaston-Johansson, Ph.D, RN.
Working with researchers at Goteborg University, Sweden, Gaston-Johansson recently published two articles in BMC Nursing focusing on better understanding and managing pain.
Inadequate management of postoperative pain is common, and leads to prolonged pain after surgery, she wrote. In addition to medical and technical factors, psychological factors may also influence the experience of postoperative pain.
A second study examined unexplained chest pain, an increasing phenomenon often seen in emergency departments.
In the article “Coping strategies, stress, physical activity and sleep in patients with unexplained chest pain,” Gaston-Johansson examines coping strategies in patients with UCP and examines the relationships between these strategies, negative events, sleep problems, physical activity, stress and pain intensity.
