Pain Control, Article Critique Example

The aim of this project is to identify patient perceptions of pain control. Although pain studies are typically conducted using a pain scale, it is necessary to determine the point of view of patient’s to determine whether or not they feel that their symptoms are being treated adequately. Specifically, the question being asked is “How does the patient’s qualitative description of pain control compare to their assessment of pain on the pain scale”? The null hypothesis states that the patient’s qualitative description of pain control is equivalent to their assessment of pain on the pain scale. The alternative hypothesis states that the patient’s qualitative description of pain control is different than their assessment of pain on the pain scale. In this situation, the independent variable would be the physician’s assessment of pain using the pain scale, while the dependent variable will be the patient’s qualitative assessment.

It is expected that there will be a positive relationship between the two variables. While physician’s typically use the pain scale in order to gain a greater understanding of how their patients are feeling, this method is utilized to provide a quantification of words. Therefore, the description that patients provide in order to characterize their pain should achieve a similar purpose. It is important to consider that are potential confounding variables in this relationship. It is therefore necessary to ensure that all patients are mentally stable and are not being provided with medications that may impair their ability to think or communicate. In addition, all patients being studied should share a common diagnosis to ensure that the type of pain being qualitatively characterized and quantitatively rated is similar in nature.

References

Bajwa, Zahid H.; Warfield, Carol A. (2004). Principles and practice of pain medicine. New York: McGraw-Hill, Medical Publishing Division.

Gupta, A., Lee, L.K., Mojica, J.J., Nairizi, A., and George, S.J. (2014). Patient perception of pain care in the United States:  a five year comparative analysis of hospital consumer assessment of health care providers and systems.  Pain Physician 17:369-377.

Polit, D.F.  Statistics and data analysis for nursing research. (2nd ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson Education Inc.