Barriers to cancer pain management from the perspective of patients: A qualitative study.
Samira Orujlu, Hadi Hassankhani, Azad Rahmani and 3 others
PMID 34657391WHAT IT FOUND
Patients with cancer described barriers to pain relief: seeing pain as God's will, fearing opioid addiction or side effects, lacking home pain methods, and feeling staff dismissed pain or withheld analgesics.
Key findings
01Four themes emerged about barriers to cancer pain management: accepting and enduring divine pain, negative attitudes toward analgesics, low knowledge of pain self-management, and neglected pain management.
02Patients described pain as God's will or punishment, which they linked to little or no motivation to implement pain management.
03Patients reported healthcare providers as barriers to pain management, citing low analgesic prescription, lack of pain assessment, and staff equating cancer with pain.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only 14 patients from an oncology hospital in north-western Iran, so the themes may not apply to other settings. All participants were Muslim, so themes about pain as God's will or punishment may reflect that sample. The interviews took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which limited access to wards, participant variety, and interview time. Participants were adults who knew their diagnosis and were undergoing chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery, so the study does not describe people with cancer outside those conditions.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that this study proves staff neglected pain or that teaching patients will reduce pain. It reports 14 patients' perceptions in an Iranian oncology hospital, not measured treatment effects.