Page 172 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

Dressing Change 147

Table 6.2 Mean psychological and physiological pain and stress
scores for patients receiving atraumatic and conventional dressings
Pain/stress Atraumatic Conventional
measures Mean ( SD ) Mean ( SD )
STAI (State) 37.09 (15.45) 33.55 (11.21)

Numerical pain 1.25 (1.04) 3.76 (3.11)
Numerical stress 1.75 (0.87) 3.74 (2.62)
HR 69.30 (7.13) 75.75 (14.24)
RR 16.70 (7.72) 16.11 (1.97)
Systolic BP 125.36 (11.66) 138.24 (17.05)
Diastolic BP 64.80 (11.79) 69.59 (12.77)
GSR 19.76 (5.42) 33.15 (16.32)
0.14 (0.03) 0.17 (0.10)
Salivary cortisol

further trauma to the skin and wound-associated pain in a
large multinational survey of patients with chronic wounds.
In a study by Upton and Solowiej ( 2012 ) the impact of
dressing type on wound pain and stress was explored. It
was hypothesised that patients with atraumatic dressings
as part of their treatment regime would experience less
pain at dressing change, in comparison with patients who
are treated with conventional dressings. It was found that
patients being treated with conventional dressings experi-
enced significantly higher numerical pain ratings, numeri-
cal stress ratings, along with the physiological measures of
stress- systolic BP, and GSR (Galvanic Skin Response)- at
dressing change in comparison with the atraumatic dress-
ings group (see Table 6.2 ).
In addition to the increased physiological indicators of
stress amongst patients receiving conventional dressings,
the self-reported severity of acute pain and stress also dem-
onstrated higher pain and stress at dressing change for the
conventional dressing group (see Fig. 6.1 ).
Overall, the findings of this research demonstrated that
patients receiving atraumatic dressings as part of their