Date of Conferral

2020

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Nursing

Advisor

Cynthia Fletcher

Abstract

Chronic pain is common, costly, challenging to manage, and affects patients’ quality of life. High confidence is placed in the nurses caring these patients. Nurses displaying skepticism or doubt about patients’ motives for seeking pain treatment contribute to the challenges of effective pain management. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if there was a relationship among the nurses’ professional skepticism, level of compassion, and years of experience during the treatment of chronic noncancer pain patients in the acute care setting. The communications model of pain guided the understanding of factors influencing nursing treatment of this patient population. Data were collected through questionnaires and vignettes from 116 actively working registered nurses within the acute care setting. Spearman’s correlational statistics was used to analyze the data to answer the research questions. The results indicated that the nurses’ professional skepticism, level of compassion, hospital admission history, and years of experience did not account for variance in the nursing treatment of chronic noncancer pain patients in the acute care setting. However, the nurses’ professional skepticism, level of compassion, and years of experience were significantly correlated. This study could be duplicated with changes made to the collection of hospital admission criteria and additional survey questions regarding treatment of pain patients. The results from this study have the potential for positive social change in the continued quest to examine the extent to which specific nursing variables affect pain management and treatment of chronic noncancer pain patients.

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