Abstract

Patients are experiencing unacceptable pain after day case surgery despite improvements in education and analgesia. It is proposed that pain may continue to prevail due to poor adherence by patients to analgesic regimens on return home. Twenty-one day case patients participated in telephone interviews exploring beliefs/attitudes regarding pain and analgesics. Themes identified were: 'Pushing the Limits', 'Monitoring the Limits' and 'Setting the Limits/Stopping the Pain'. These illustrate how patients’ beliefs may lead them to endure pain, using analgesics as a last resort. Interventions are needed to tackle beliefs held by patients to help increase adherence and ultimately to reduce pain after surgery.