The impact of verbal, written and visual education materials on patient controlled analgesia device usage

Surgical operations are increasing in paralel with technological developments in healthcare field nowadays. But pain stil remains one of the most important symptom that patients complain at postoperative period. Although many methods and analgesic medications are used for pain management, there is a little progress in pain management. One of the most beneficial method for pain management is patient controlled analgesia. Patient controlled analgesia devices allow drug administration to patients by themselves. But patient information is needed to use thisdevices properly. In this research we aimed to find the impact of verbal, written and visual educational tools on patient controlled analgesia usage. After the approval for ethics committee, 96 patients who planned for hysterectomy operation between the ages 20-65 and have an American Society of Anaesthesiology (ASA) score I-III enrolled this study. Patient visits were made at 15th minute, 2., 4., 6., 12., 18. and 24. hours after operation. Patients static and dynamic pain scores, nausea and vomiting presence, patient controlled analgesia buton usage and patient controlled analgesia drug administration, additional analgesic and antiemetic drug dosages whether they needed are recorded. Numerical Rating Score (NRS) is utilized for the assessment of static and dynamic pain. No differences were observed in the static and dynamic pain scores, patient controlled analgesia buton usage or patient controlled drug administration in verbal, written and visual education groups at 15th minute, 2., 4., 6., 12., 18. and 24. Hours after operation (p>0.05). As a result, in this study conducted on patients who underwent hysterectomy operation, we did not observe any superiority of verbal, written and visual education methods to each other for patient controlled analgesia usage.