ABSTRACT
The purpose of this project was to improve the comprehensiveness of nursing instructions given to patients on managing pain following total knee replacement surgery. The project began on 3 January 2007 and concluded on 30 June of the same year. The four methods used included 1) promoting the knowledge of nurses with regard to postoperative pain management; 2) establishing nursing instruction sheets for postoperative pain management; 3) adapting a visual pain analog scale to accept information expressed verbally; and 4) developing standard nursing care procedures for post-operative pain management. Results showed the score for patient pain management effectiveness following total knee replacement rose from an initial 1.7 to 3.6 at discharge. Nursing instruction performance also rose from 28.6% to 95.0% and the correctness of nurse knowledge with regard to postoperative pain management rose from an initial 62.1% to 93.1%. In conclusion, this project to improve the appropriateness and comprehensiveness of nurse instructions to patients with the objective of managing pain following total knee replacement surgery effectively achieved significantly positive results.
