EXAMINATION OF CARE PLANS OF STUDENTS TAKING SURGICAL NURSING COURSE IN TERMS OF DIAGNOSIS OF PAIN

The aim of this study is to determine whether or not students include diagnosis of acute pain in their nursing care plans and evaluate it appropriately. The population of this retrospective descriptive study consisted of 161 students who completed the clinical practice of the surgical diseases nursing course at a university’s nursing faculty. When the nursing care planes of the students were examined, it was determined that 61.5% were female and their average age was 21.56±1.43 years. When the diagnosis of acute pain was examined in terms of the nursing process steps, it was determined that 60.2% of the students were competent in taking medical history of patients and 49% in physical assessment in the data collection stage. However, 56.1% of the students used a pain assessment scale and 45.9% indicated the pain area in the diagnosis step. After the nursing practices they planned for the patients whose pain diagnosis they determined, 19.4% of the students stated that they reached the goal, while 38.8% did not evaluate the effectiveness of the nursing practices. It is recommended that students’ training should be planned in the context of their deficiencies in the nursing process and they should prepare more care plans to gain experience in preparing care plans.