The impact of nurses' empathic responses on patients' pain management in acute care

Background: Although nurses have the major responsibility for pain manageme nt, little is known about nurses' responses to patients in the process of m anaging acute pain. Objective: To examine the relationship between nurses' empathic responses a nd their patients' pain intensity and analgesic administration after surger y. Methods: Two hundred twenty-five patients from four cardiovascular units in three university-affiliate hospitals were interviewed on the third day aft er their initial, uncomplicated coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery about their pain and current pain management. Concurrently, their nurses' (n = 94) empathy and pain knowledge and beliefs were assessed. Patient data were aggregated and linked with the assigned nurse to form 80 nurse-patien t pairs. Results: Nurses were moderately empathic, and their responses did not signi ficantly influence their patients' pain intensity or analgesia administered . Patients reported moderate to severe pain but received only 47% of their prescribed analgesia. Patients' perceptions of their nurse's attention to t heir pain were not positive, and empathy explained only 3% of variance in p atients' pain intensity. Deficits in knowledge and misbeliefs about pain ma nagement were evident for nurses independent of empathy, and knowledge expl ained 7% of variance in analgesia administered. Hospital sites varied signi ficantly in analgesic practices and pain inservice education for nurses. Conclusions: Empathy was not associated with patients' pain intensity or an algesic administration.