The Effect of Family‑Oriented Educational Intervention on Postoperative Pain after Orthopedic Surgery

Non‑pharmacological methods including the improvement of knowledge of patients and his/her family members in the management and control of pain can reduce patients’ experiences of pain. The present study aimed to investigate the effects of family‑oriented educational intervention on postoperative pain after orthopedic surgery.

This study is a non‑randomized controlled trial with the control group, which was carried out on 46 patients in orthopedic surgery units of Mousavi Hospital in Zanjan in 2017. Patients were selected based on convenience sampling and categorized into two groups of experimental (n = 23) and control (n = 23) groups. In the experimental group, educational intervention was performed with the attendance of the patient and his/her family members in two sessions of the preoperative and postoperative period. The control group received routine care. The pain intensity was measured by Visual Analog Scale (VAS) for 3 days in both control and experimental group. Data were analyzed by using Chi‑square, Fisher exact test, independent t‑test, and Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) with repeated measures and Greenhouse–Geisser.

Mean (SD) of pain intensity in the experimental and control groups was 5.21 (1.47) vs 6.74 (1.30) on the first day, 2.91 (1.20) vs 4.81 (1.32) on the second day, and 1.75 (0.67) vs 3.38 (1.53) on the third day, respectively. Pain severity reduction was significant in the experimental group compared to control group in every 3 days after surgery (F = 152.30, df = 1.62, p = 0.005).

Family‑oriented educational intervention resulted in reducing the intensity of pain and the use of narcotic drugs after orthopedic surgery.