Analgesic

Impact of the Patient's Health Beliefs or Behaviour on Prescribing Practice of Analgesics after Surgery

Impact of the Patient's Health Beliefs or Behaviour on Prescribing Practice of Analgesic after Surgery

Pain Management

In the health care setting, one of the problematic issues is the management of pain following the surgery. Although there is new techniques and pain management team is available in a hospital setting, but the problem still persists. Moreover, with the increased frequency of ambulatory care or day case surgery, the accountability of pain management has shifted from the health care provider to the patients discharged for home after two to there hours of surgery. The reasons of this problem are the patients` belief and their behaviour deviating them to follow the prescription. Patients possess different beliefs with respect to their religious, cultural and regional values. These values generate hindrance in taking benefits from the prescribed drugs for alleviating pain after surgery (Liang et al, 2008, p. 1102). According to Lai et al (2002, p. 420), it is necessary to assess and support the medication beliefs to make them adhere to the drugs in reducing pain and enhancing the health status.

Pain is a common symptom following the surgery. It is the priority of both patients and clinicians to control the pain. Clinicians make all sorts of effort to minimize the pain in the safe way. For this purpose, they often prescribe analgesics. Furthermore, the role of a patient is crucial in managing the pain. Patients can better perceive and explain the intensity of pain, and doctors can prescribe the better options for reducing pain. In addition, the management of pain is imperative to keep the patient comfortable. Reduction in pain increase the will of patients to get well soon, as well as decline the risks associated to the development of certain complicated conditions such as blood clotting and pneumonia.

Patients` Belief and Behaviour

With the increased rate of surgical procedures, the inappropriate management of pain after surgery is also growing. In United Kingdom, the inadequate management of pain has been reporting for more than thirty years along with the similar consequences in most of the other regions of the world (Schoenwald & Clark 2006, p. 99). Health care providers and analysts have identified several reasons and obstacles in the management of pain by the patients. The possible barriers include the incomplete or little knowledge regarding the management of pain (WattWatsonet al, 2004, p. 158). Patients miss the doses intentionally due to a certain kind of beliefs in spite of having the intense pain. At the residential place after surgery, patients frequently miss the doses and prefer to tolerate the pain.

Older (2010, p. 514) and his colleagues identified three groups of patients in their studies. The first group encompasses the individuals who endure pain and avoid the use of analgesics due to their certain beliefs via pushing the limits of pain. The second group of people reduces the pain by utilizing various other procedures instead of taking the analgesics. However, the third group of people ...