Page 173 - Psychology of Wounds and Wound Care in Clinical Practice ( PDFDrive )

148 Chapter 6. Treatment

4
Pain
Numerical pain/stress rating 2.5 2 1
3.5
Stress
3

1.5

0.5
0
Atraumatic Conventional
Dressing type

Figure 6.1 Self-reported numerical stress and pain ratings of
patients receiving atraumatic and conventional dressings as part of
wound treatment

wound treatment experienced significantly lower episodes of
acute pain and stress at dressing change in comparison with
patients being treated with conventional dressings. In particu-
lar, atraumatic dressings appear to improve and minimise the
experience of acute stress and pain at dressing change.
Overall, the results of the Upton and Solowiej ( 2012 ) study
support the notion that appropriate selection of dressings can
contribute to a reduction in acute pain and stress, which could
lead to an overall improvement in wound treatment experi-
ence. A more recent study, reported by Parvaneh et al. ( 2014 )
monitored the stress in a group of patients (n = 20) con-
tinuously whilst they waited for their treatment, underwent
a dressing change and then in the post-dressing period. Their
results indicated higher stress during the dressing change
compared to before the treatment. Unfortunately in this
pilot study no comparison between dressing types or wound
care regimes was explored but their innovative technique of
recording stress through a wearable sensor in real time does
open this possibility in the future.
These studies have demonstrated the impact of the dressing
type on various psychological measures. Although Upton and
Solowiej ( 2012 ) explored atraumatic dressings in comparison