In the study “Nurses’ experiences and perceptions of influencing barriers to postoperative pain management,” the authors Nahid Rejeh, Fazlollah Ahmadi, Eesa Mohammadi, Anoshirvan Kazemnejad and Moniereh Anoosheh have used a semi-structured interview as a method of choice to obtain their data. After selection based on predetermined criteria, the participants were subjected to a set of structured questions in an interview based on post operative pain management. The respondents give answers based on their experience at their work places (Flick, 2009).
Each participant was interviewed individually and timing of the exercise is carefully done so as to coincide with the duration when they don’t have a lot of work so that the entire time of 90 minutes set aside for the interview is well covered. This went on for a period of 3 months and only stopped when a saturation point was considered to have been reached.
The study method used was appropriate owing to the fact that each participant was given an opportunity to express their views on the challenges they face and what they perceive as barriers in post operative pain management as opposed to filling surveys or providing answers to predetermined questions.
According to this study, very few studies that are qualitative in nature have been done in the past regarding this topic. By using nurses as respondents, more insight into the actual barriers to effective management of post operative pain can be obtained and the findings may be incorporated in nursing syllabus so as to rid it of barriers associated with nurse training.
The subjects for the study were obtained via predetermined criteria. The authors set out a minimum working experience for the subjects because they believed that they were best suited for the topic since they have managed post operative patients long enough to understand the barriers to effective management of the condition.
Snowball method was used by the researchers and involves a subject proposing their peers who have worked in surgical wards and have sufficient experience in post surgical pain management. In the process managers, supervisors and nurses in other hospitals were selected for the study. The method used was appropriate in that in the end the subjects selected posses a range of working experience in the wards, policy implementation and academic qualification necessary to provide adequate information for the study.
The study was conducted among twenty six subjects who were selected by a snowball method. The limit to the number of respondents to be subjected to the study was based on the respondents repeating what has already been said by previous respondents. This represents saturation as no new themes were being added to the study and the study was considered concluded. The subjects so referred by others were those considered to have worked long enough and therefore have enough experience of pain management and what impedes its effective provision (Burns & Grove, 2009).
The sample size used was adequate as the themes sought to be investigated were extensively covered to the extent repetition of responses was encountered which signifies saturation of the study topic (Silverman, 2004).
The subjects were all selected from teaching hospitals which comprises of nurses, supervisors, managers and members of staff of nursing schools. This represented the complete spectrum of nursing profession and the subjects in the setup were able to respond appropriately to all questions pertaining to the study ranging from the barriers witnessed from nursing practice in the wards, management issues including staffing to the weaknesses in the nursing syllabus which contributes to non-effectiveness of nursing care of pain patients.
References
Burns, N., & Grove, S. K. (2009). The practice of nursing research: Appraisal, synthesis, and generation of evidence (6th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Saunders Elsevier.
Flick, U. (2009). An Introduction to Qualitative Research. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications Ltd.
Silverman, D. (2004). Qualitative research: theory, method and practice. Thousand Oaks: SAGE.