Pain Expectations, Experiences and Coping Strategies Used By Post-operative Patients: A Descriptive Phenomelogical Study

Objectives Post-operative pain is still an unresolved problem worldwide including limited-resource countries such as Ghana. Earlier studies have mainly focused on post-operative pain experiences of patient with little attention on their pain expectations and coping strategies, however exploring these other areas can help to better manage post-operative pain. The current study sought to explore pain expectations, post-operative pain experiences, and coping strategies used by adult surgical patients. Methods A descriptive phenomenological design approach was used to study nine purposively sampled surgical patients who were receiving care at a regional hospital in Ghana. Participants were individually interviewed before and during the post-operative period to share their opinions on their pain expectations, postoperative pain experiences and coping strategies. The semi-structured individual interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and content analyzed to generate themes which described participants’ accounts. Results Participants comprised of six females and three males; their ages ranged from 24 to 40 years who underwent major surgeries. Three main themes were derived from this study, diverse pain expectations and experiences, post-operative pain effects and post-operative pain coping strategies. The study revealed that participants have different pain expectations and experiences, surgical pain affected their activities of daily living and emotions. Participants coped with the postoperative pain by using personal strategies and seeking support from nurses. Conclusion Pain expectation of surgical patients affects their post-operative pain experiences. Surgical patients use coping strategies in their post-operative pain management. More needs to be done in reducing surgical patients’ experience of Post-operative pain. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement The author(s) received no specific funding for this work. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Ethics Committee of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(College of Health Sciences) gave ethical approval for this work I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files