Hospice Cancer Patients' and Hospice Nurses' Reported Barriers to Management of Pain

One of the goals of hospice is to provide management of cancer pain. In order to achieve the above goal, barriers to pain management must be recognized and overcome. Barriers to pain management include fatalism, fear of addiction, fear of side effects from analgesics, fear of the disease progression, fear of tolerance to pain medications, fear of injections, and the desire to be a good patient. A review of the literature indicates these barriers to the pain management impact patients and health care providers. The modified Barriers Questionnaire addresses these barriers in a twenty-four item survey instrument. This instrument was mailed to sixty home hospice nurses and fifty-four home hospice cancer patients with a return response of forty nurses and ten patients. Significant statistical differences were found between hospice nurses' and hospice patients' barriers to pain management. In the upper Midwestern region, hospice patients scored higher than the hospice nurses on the barrier items. Thus, the nurses underestimated the patient barriers. This underestimation may result in decreased patient education by the hospice nurses.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis - University Access Only

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Graduate Nursing

Year

1999

Author dc:creator

• Gabbert, Pamela S.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Barbara Heater

• cancer pain treatment
• cancer patient attributes
• nurse attitudes
• nurse and patient
• Nursing

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 1999 Pamela Gabbert. All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

Repository record dc:identifier

https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/836

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:openprairie.sdstate.edu:etd-1836