ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to test the effects of music therapy on postoperative pain in patients with total hip replacement. METHOD: The research design was a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. The subjects were composed of thirty patients with total hip replacement. Fifteen of them were assigned to the experimental group and fifteen to the control group. Fifteen minutes tailored music therapy was given to the experimental group during five consecutive days. The instruments used for this study were pain NRS(numerical rating scale). The data were analyzed using percent, mean, standard deviation, chi-square-test and repeated measure ANOVA using SPSS WIN 11.0. RESULTS: Hypothesis 1 "The score of pain NRS of experimental group will be lower than those of control group" was accepted(F=15.945, p<.001). Hypothesis 2 "The frequency of PCA analgesics of experimental group will be fewer than those of control group" was accepted (t=-2.312, p=.028). Hypothesis 3 "The vital signs(pulse, systolic BP and diastolic BP) of experimental group will be different from those of control group" was rejected. CONCLUSION: This music therapy can be recommended as an efficient nursing intervention to reduce postoperative pain in patients with total hip replacement.