Nursing care with patient-controlled analgesia: scope review

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES:

Patient controlled analgesia (PCA) is an effective technology for controlling pain, with relevance to the care offered. The objective of the present work was to describe, through a scoping review, nursing care in PCA intravenous and epidural routes during the postoperative period of adult patients.

CONTENTS:

A scoping review was carried out, registered on the Center for Open Science Website (10.17605/OSF.IO/T74DK), with the following question: “What is the nursing care with patient-controlled analgesia in the postoperative period of adults patients?”, in the electronic databases Cochrane, Science Direct, Pubmed/Medline, LILACS, MedCarib, PAH-O-IRIS, and WHOIRIS in addition to an exploratory search for documents, published from 2013 to 2023. 192 documents were found, of which were included five. The nursing care found occurred in the areas of patient and caregiver education, patient assessment, and nursing team conduct.

CONCLUSION:

Nursing has an important role in educating patients and caregivers, preventing errors, and promoting patient safety. Further studies that are more specific in relation to the conduct of the nursing team in this context are needed.

Keywords:
Pain; Patient safety; Postoperative nursing

HIGHLIGHTS

Nursing care with patient-controlled analgesia focuses on patient and caregiver education, patient monitoring, optimization of teamwork and quality of care.

This study highlights nursing actions that promote patient safety when using the device.