Aim: The aim of this study was to examine how older patients who had undergone hip surgery described their experience of pain.
Background: A verbal report of pain is considered to be the single most reliable indicator of a person's pain experience. When assessing pain, healthcare professionals must be able to interpret the content of pain reports in order to understand older patient's pain experiences.
Methods: The study was carried out in two orthopaedic and two elder care wards in a large university hospital in Sweden in 2000. Altogether, 38 patients with hip replacement (mean age = 75) and 22 patients with hip fracture (mean age = 81) took part. A face-to-face interview was conducted with each patient on the second day after operation. Data were transcribed and analysed using descriptive qualitative content analysis.
Findings: Participants expressed their pain in a nuanced and detailed way in everyday language. Four main themes with sub-themes emerged: (a) objectification (localizing; quantifying; characterizing; temporalizing); (b) compensating (substitution; picturing); (c) explaining (functionalizing pain and its relief; externalizing pain and its relief); (d) existentializing (present pain orientation; future pain orientation).
Conclusions: Exploring the ways older patients talk about pain is expected to result in a better understanding of the older patient's need of empathic individualized care and in the optimization of pain management.