The Effect of Patient Education on Pain Level and Fear of Pain in Orthopedians and Traumatology Patients

Design The research is a randomized controlled experimental research design. Research hypotheses H1: The postoperative pain level of the patients in the intervention group is lower than that of the patients in the control group.

H2: The level of fear of postoperative pain of the patients in the intervention group is lower than that of the patients in the control group.

Research Variables Dependent Variables: Patients' pain level and fear of pain level Independent variable: Patient education Participants and setting The study group of the study consisted of 52 patients who underwent elective surgery in the orthopedics and traumatology clinic of the training and research hospital affiliated with the Ministry of Health in Istanbul between December 15, 2021, and March 15, 2022, and were open to communication and cooperation, had no cognitive and mental problems, and volunteered to participate in the study. The number of patients to be included in the study group; intervention and control were determined as a minimum of 25 patients (by calculating the margin of error of type 1 (α) = 0.05 and the power of the test (1-β) = 0.80, effect size 0.66 by power analysis of the patients constituting the universe). The study group consisted of a total of 52 patients, 26 in the intervention group and 26 in the control group, taking into account the possibility of data loss.

Intervention group: Patients receiving patient education on pain management Control group: Patients who did not receive training in pain management Patients who met the inclusion criteria were interviewed about the study. Patients who agreed to participate in the study were asked to choose an envelope containing an intervention or control letter. The patient with an intervention letter on the envelope was included in the intervention group and the patient with a control letter was included in the control group. Thus, bias in group selection was presented in the study.

Homogeneity between the groups was ensured by testing the gender, age, number of days of hospitalization, educational status, occupation, previous surgery, and regular use of pain medication. As a result of the analyses, it was found that there was no statistically significant difference between the gender, age, number of days of hospitalization, educational status, occupation, previous surgery, and regular use of pain medication in the intervention and control groups (p>0.05) (Table 1). According to the results, the intervention group (n: 26) and the control group (n: 26) showed homogenous distribution.