Midwifery students’ conceptions of worst imaginable pain

The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is one of the most widely used pain assessment scales in clinical practice and research. However, the VAS is used less frequently in midwifery than in other clinical contexts. The issue of how people interpret the meaning of the VAS endpoints (i.e. no pain and worst i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Women and birth : journal of the Australian College of Midwives 2014-06, Vol.27 (2), p.104-107
Main Authors: Mårtensson, Lena B., Ek, Kristina, Ekström, Anette, Bergh, Ingrid H.E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accidents
Childbirth
Clinical Competence
Clinical research
Cross-Sectional Studies
Female
Humans
Kvinna, barn och familj (WomFam)
Medical sciences
Medicin
Midwifery
Midwifery - education
Midwifery students
Midwives
Nursing
Pain
Pain - classification
Pain - psychology
Pain Measurement
Pregnancy
Students, Nursing - psychology
Suffering
Surveys and Questionnaires
Sweden
Visual Analog Scale
Visual Analogue Scale
Woman, Child and Family (WomFam)
Worst imaginable pain
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Summary:The Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) is one of the most widely used pain assessment scales in clinical practice and research. However, the VAS is used less frequently in midwifery than in other clinical contexts. The issue of how people interpret the meaning of the VAS endpoints (i.e. no pain and worst imaginable pain) has been discussed. The aim of this study was to explore midwifery students’ conceptions of ‘worst imaginable pain’. A sample of 230 midwifery students at seven universities in Sweden responded to an open-ended question: ‘What is the worst imaginable pain for you?’ This open-ended question is a part of a larger study. Their responses underwent manifest content analysis. Analysis of the midwifery students’ responses to the open-ended question revealed five categories with 24 sub-categories. The categories were Overwhelming pain, Condition-related pain, Accidents, Inflicted pain and Psychological suffering. The midwifery students’ conceptions of ‘worst imaginable pain’ are complex, elusive and diverse.
ISSN:1871-5192
1878-1799
1878-1799
DOI:10.1016/j.wombi.2014.01.004