Registered nurses' personal responses to postoperative pain: a descriptive qualitative study.

This paper explores if nurses' personal responses to postoperative pain contribute to its continuing poor management. A descriptive qualitative design used a purposive sample of 16 registered nurses (RNs), from inpatient surgical areas in the United Kingdom, to participate in one semistructured interview. These were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Analysis used Morse and Field's four stages. A complex picture of collective and individual responses emerged; uncritical adoption of the medical model, with pain as normal and focus on technical aspects of management conforming to a "reference typology." However, individual RNs were also influenced by other personal factors, and findings indicate that scrutinizing individual competency is essential to improve individual and collective practice.