Abstract
The purpose of this research is to clarify the patients' experiences of patient-controlled analgesia for post-operative pain. I performed semi-structured interviews with 30 patients whose post-operative pain management has been effected via PCA, and who have pushed PCA buttons on their own, and then I conducted content analysis.
According to the analysis, the main merits of PCA for the patients are that there were analgesic effects, patients did not have to be concerned with medical staff, and they got faster response to their pain than they did via other analgesic methods. As for primary negative outcomes, patients had anxiety about analgesics and refrained from pushing the PCA buttons, recognizing that they had to self-manage their pain, analgesics and side-effects. As one of the patients' experiences of PCA orientation, there are numerous explanation before having operations and the patients could not receive pre-operation explanations because of their fear of operations.
In Japan, since effective PCA orientation has yet to emerge, further consideration regarding what is to be explained, and when and how to give explanations will be necessary in the future.
