Showing papers by "Hal G. Bingham published in 1995"

Pain and anxiety during burn dressing changes: concordance between patients' and nurses' ratings and relation to medication administration and patient variables.

Abstract: Few studies have examined the various factors related to pain during burn dressing changes. Patients' and nurses' ratings of pain and tension were obtained during 107 burn dressing changes among 11 burned patients. As found in previous studies, there was little concordance between nurses' and patients' ratings. Both nurses' and patients' ratings of pain were positively related to amount of analgesic medications administered, whereas amounts were inversely related to patients' reports of pain in a subsample of dressing changes in which anxiolytics were administered. However, these relationships failed to reach statistical significance. Multiple regression analyses revealed that ratings of tension during the procedure were significantly related to overall and worst pain, whereas amount of analgesics and anxiolytics given, postburn day, and total body surface area were not. Exploratory correlations suggested that ability to accurately discriminate between painful episodes, social desirability, and trait anxiety may be factors that significantly influence self-report of pain and might be worthwhile to study more systematically in the future. Implications for burn pain control and suggestions for future research are presented.

A retrospective review of the burn intensive care unit admissions for a year.

Abstract: One hundred twenty-three patients who were admitted to the University of Florida burn intensive care unit during a 1-year period were included in this retrospective study. The average age of the patients was 28 years (range 3 months to 90 years), and the average size of the total body surface area burned was 18%, with 7% full-thickness burns. The average hospital stay of each patient was 17.46 days. One hundred twelve operations were carried out in the burn unit's operating room with a circulating nurse from the registered nursing staff of the burn intensive care unit. No major complications occurred during the procedures. There were 1689 hydrotherapies and 2496 splint days. No significant loss of function of the patients' extremities developed while the patients were in the burn intensive care unit after the 112 debridement and skin grafting procedures were done. During the year, 365 follow-up examinations were done on previously discharged patients in the outpatient clinic area of the burn intensive care unit, which gave the doctors, registered nurses, and therapists an opportunity to determine their patients' progress. During the past year 537 separate pieces of compression garments were fitted.