Raising patients hope in despair: The culture of nursing care of burn pain: An ethnographic study

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although many studies have been carried out to address burn patients' pain and suffering, pain relief still remains an immense unsolved challenge with individual, social, and cultural aspects. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was conducted aiming to investigate and explain nursing care in burn patients. This was a semifocused ethnographic research conducted in burns units in a referral teaching hospital (Mazandaran, Iran). The data were collected through descriptive, focused, and selective participant observations and ethnographic interviews with burns unit nurses selected via a purposeful sampling method. The collected data were analyzed on the basis of James Spradley's approach. RESULTS: Three main categories and nine subcategories were obtained from data analysis that are as follows: 1) Bending over backward (tenacity, altruism, dedication, and conscience and constancy), 2) Prevention is worth a pound of cure (unique clinical methods, enhanced frustration tolerance through self-motivation and self-efficacy, raise patient's hope in despair), and 3) undisputed dominance of nursing art (reduced unsettling experiences, burnt and ripped body rehabilitation, patient stress management, and avoidance of false hope). CONCLUSIONS: Although burn nurses are under huge physical and mental pressure, they enhance patients' pain tolerance through their art of nursing, which is a collection of empirical knowledge, huge work conscience, unique clinical skills, and various therapeutic communication techniques.