Vol. 2, Issue 1, Part A (2025)

Postoperative pain remains one of the most frequently reported and distressing symptoms after surgery, and inadequate pain relief is still common despite advances in multimodal analgesia. Non-pharmacological nursing interventions such as positioning, relaxation, distraction, music therapy, breathing exercises, and application of heat or cold are recommended as complementary strategies to optimize pain control and minimise opioid-related adverse effects. However, evidence indicates that these interventions are inconsistently implemented in routine clinical practice and are often poorly documented by nurses.
This research aims to assess pain-management practices among postoperative patients with a specific focus on the use, frequency, and perceived effectiveness of non-pharmacological nursing interventions, and to explore the relationship between nurses’ knowledge and attitudes and patients’ reported pain intensity and satisfaction with care.
A descriptive, cross-sectional research design will be conducted in surgical wards of a tertiary-care hospital. A consecutive sample of adult postoperative patients within 72 hours after major surgery will be surveyed using a structured questionnaire capturing demographic and clinical variables, pain intensity scores, types and frequency of non-pharmacological interventions received, and satisfaction with pain management. Parallel data will be collected from nurses using a validated knowledge-attitude-practice instrument on postoperative pain and non-pharmacological methods. Descriptive statistics will summarize patterns of practice; chi-square tests and multivariable regression will be used to examine associations between nurses’ characteristics, use of non-pharmacological interventions, and patient outcomes.
It is anticipated that a substantial proportion of patients will report moderate to severe pain despite receiving pharmacological analgesia, and that non-pharmacological nursing interventions will be underutilised or limited to basic measures such as repositioning and provision of a comfortable environment. Nurses with higher knowledge scores and more favourable attitudes towards pain management are expected to employ a wider range of non-pharmacological strategies, and patients exposed to multiple interventions are expected to report lower pain scores and higher satisfaction.
Assessing current patterns of non-pharmacological pain-management practices among postoperative patients will help identify gaps in nursing care, inform targeted educational programmes, and support the development of context-appropriate protocols to integrate evidence-based non-pharmacological interventions into routine postoperative pain management.