Elderly Hospice Patients’ Perspective on Pain Management

Abstract

The literature reports that 70% of cancer patients with advanced disease experience pain. Even with increased emphasis on research and education, problems with effective pain management are still evident. Hospice patients' knowledge and attitudes about pain may contribute to this complex problem. To gain an understanding of hospice patients' perspective on the management of pain, 57 hospice patients were asked to describe their knowledge of pain management and their attitudes toward controlling pain. Results showed non-facilitative attitudes and gaps in knowledge that may contribute to ineffective pain management among hospice patients.

A narrative literature review of older people's cancer pain experience

“…Also, poor communication between the older people and their professional caregivers was noted as a potential contributory factor to the experience of poor pain control (Brockopp et al . , Bostrom et al . ).…”

“…Five other studies noted similar anxieties of and fears about the pain and the associated disease progression or side effects of treatments for the pain (Brockopp et al . , Leydon et al . , Thomé et al .…”

“…However, the presented qualitative data in the ‘mixed methods’ papers were minimal (Brockopp et al . , Cascinu et al . , Wijk & Grimby , Gagliese et al .…”

“…A range of emotions and concerns about having cancer pain were considered by ten studies including the expression of anxiety, fear and helplessness (Brockopp et al . , Vogelzang et al . , Duggleby , Leydon et al .…”

“…Older people's expression of pain experience was contrasted with health professionals' assessment of pain in six papers (Brockopp et al . , Vogelzang et al . , Cascinu et al .…”