Pain management in the recovery room of the anesthesiology department

The diploma thesis is focused on the issue of patients experiencing postoperative pain in a Post Anaesthesia Care Unit (PACU). The thesis is aimed at three basic goals. The first one is focused on the analysis of the pain a patient experiences in a PACU. The second goal is the in-depth comparison of the pain the patients experience after various surgeries and the third goal is to get the feedback on the nurses' approach to the pain assessment. The theoretical part of this thesis is focused on the detailed explanation and the division of pain, treatment of pain and the function and the equipment of a PACU. The research part of this thesis was carried out in the form of quantitative research. A form with 22 questions, which was targeted on nurses working at the PACU, was used for the data acquisition. The questions were aimed at obtaining detailed data related to the evaluation of postoperative pain, but also at obtaining the information regarding staffing in particular hospitals. 183 nurses working in 79 hospitals filled out the form. There was also monitoring of pain carried out with 83 patients in the PACU in the Military University Hospital Prague. The patients experienced various types of surgeries. The results could help to find suitable strategies of evaluating and postoperative pain treatment in the PACU. During the research, it became obvious that patients who underwent neurosurgical operations of the spine experience the most intense pain. On the contrary, patients who underwent urological surgeries experience the least intense pain According to nurses'opinion the most important factors in evaluating patient's pain are the verbal expression of the patients and the change of physiological functions. Neither the lenght of practice nor the education has statistically a significant influence on the final evaluation of patient's pain. The experienced nurses with long-term practice predominate in the PACU. Based on the information given by nurses, it is safe to assume that the current treatment of postoperative pain is sufficient. It's rather rare for a patient to have strong pain after running out of options in analgetic treatment. It's worth noting that there are significant differences in the staffing of the PACU across hospitals