Malmö University Publications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Pain Relief at the End of Life: Nurses’ Experiences Regarding End-of-Life Pain Relief in Patients with Dementia
Malmö högskola, Faculty of Health and Society (HS), Department of Care Science (VV).ORCID iD: 0000-0002-0228-1358
Malmö högskola, Faculty of Health and Society (HS), Department of Care Science (VV).
2014 (English)In: Pain Management Nursing, ISSN 1524-9042, E-ISSN 1532-8635, Vol. 15, no 1, p. 315-323Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Patients with dementia receive suboptimal palliative care, and this patient group is at risk to have pain at the end of life. Because communicative impairments are common in this patient group, nurses play an important caregiver role in identifying, assessing, and relieving patients’ pain. This study aimed to describe nurses’ experiences regarding end-of-life pain relief in patients with dementia. This descriptive exploratory qualitative study was based on seven semistructured interviews. Burnard’s content analysis inspired the data analysis. Two main categories were identified: (1) nurses’ experience of difficulties concerning pain relief and (2) nurses’ experience of resources concerning pain relief. Nurses experienced difficulties, such as feeling of powerlessness because of difficulties in obtaining adequate prescriptions for analgesics, ethical dilemmas, feeling of inadequacy because analgesia did not have the desired effect, and a feeling of not being able to connect with the patient. Factors, including knowledge about the patient, professional experience, utilization of pain assessment tools, interpersonal relationships, and interprofessional cooperation, served as resources and enabled end-of-life pain relief. The results of this study highlight the complexity of pain relief in patients with dementia at the end of life from a nursing perspective. The inability of patients with dementia to verbally communicate their pain makes them a vulnerable patient group, dependent on their caregivers. Knowing the life story of the patient, professional experience, teamwork based on good communication, and use of a pain assessment tool were reported by the nurses to improve pain relief at the end of life for patients with dementia.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2014. Vol. 15, no 1, p. 315-323
National Category
Medical and Health Sciences
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-5491DOI: 10.1016/j.pmn.2012.10.005ISI: 000332398400035PubMedID: 23453467Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84895146433Local ID: 16751OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-5491DiVA, id: diva2:1402351
Available from: 2020-02-28 Created: 2020-02-28 Last updated: 2024-02-05Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textPubMedScopus

Authority records

Örmon, KarinBolmsjö, Ingrid

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Örmon, KarinBolmsjö, Ingrid
By organisation
Department of Care Science (VV)
In the same journal
Pain Management Nursing
Medical and Health Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
pubmed
urn-nbn
Total: 69 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf