Teaching nursing students about chronic pain: The lived experience perspective of nurse educators

Abstract

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the meanings and interpret as closely as possible the “lived experiences” of nurse educators who have personally experienced chronic pain in an attempt to better understand how these educators articulate and shape how they teach about chronic pain. Understanding the “lived experiences” of nurse educators can assist in determining how the “lived experience” links and gives voice to the way they teach about chronic pain assessment and management and determine if implications exist for reform in undergraduate nursing curriculum.  The findings from this study support the need to challenge educational epistemologies that suggest there is a consistently corresponding relationship between pain scales, objective pain assessment, and preconceived judgments regarding chronic pain assessment and management. Subject matter presented in the classroom needs to focus on understanding the problem, which may not resemble the clinical situation in which nurses function. Instruction should be based on context and experience.