J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  1997 Dec;8(4):559-563.

Painful Experiences of the Trauma Patient in the Emergency Room

• Lee HN
• Jeong TO
• Jin YH
• Lee JB

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Victims of trauma in the emergency room(ER) suffer from kinds of discomforts derived from their physical injury and psychological instability. Although discomforts may be varied by the patient's characteristics and environmental factors such as medical personnel or facilities in ER, an active control for the discomfort should be required because it may affect an outcome of treatment and prognosis of illness. The purpose of this study is to analyze the distressing factors which traumatized patients have been experienced in the ER and to improve the management of trauma patients in the future.
METHODS
From January 1, 1996 to June 30, 1996, we tried to interview patients about the painful experiences in ER before the decision of his or her discharge from ER. We analyzed the data on age, sex, religion, educational level, injury severity score(ISS), the most unpleasant experience, sleep deprivation, and friar for death.
RESULTS
The 126 patients were enrolled in this study. The patients consisted of 93 male and 33 female, their mean age was 45 years old and mean ISS was 7.86. About seventy one percent of the patients complained unpleasant experiences during the stay in the ER. Of these, pain at the injury sites was the most frequent complaint (66.7%). The sleep deprivation was showed about sixty percent of the total patient and the most common cause of this was also due to pain(40%). Nineteen percent of the patients answered that they have felt the fear for death. There were statistically significant differences in degree of the ISS whether the fear for death and unpleasant experience were or not. When the patients demarked with whether the presence of pain, the occurrence of sleep deprivation, and fear for death were statistically related to the pain. However, the data was denoted no direct relationship with pain according to sex, educational level, or religion.
CONCLUSION
The trauma patient admitted to ER suffered from various stressful conditions including not only their physical injury but care personnel or unstable environmental factors in ER. Therefore, emergency medical personnel has to understand some possible distresses of the patients and need to reduce them to provide more careful and proper managements.

MeSH Terms

Emergencies*
Emergency Service, Hospital*
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Prognosis
Sleep Deprivation