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British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2001, Vol. 87, No. 6 815-818
© 2001 The Board of Management and Trustees of the British Journal of Anaesthesia

Editorial

Editorial III

PCA: patient-controlled analgesia or politically correct analgesia?

P. Salmon and G.M. Hall

Patient control: distinguishing reality from rhetoric

Politicians, managers, and clinicians have written and spoken a great deal in recent years about patient involvement and choice in health care. The word ‘patient’ has even given way in some contexts to ‘user’ or ‘customer’, as consumer-orientation has displaced the traditional view of the patient as a passive recipient of experts’ care. Although it is the rhetoric of health care that has changed most obviously, there have been some tangible changes in patient management that emphasize patients’ active role. The rapid and widespread adoption of patient-controlled analgesia (PCA) as a method of acute pain management should be understood in this context.

For PCA to be accurately described as patient-controlled analgesia, both patients and staff have to change their attitudes and behaviour. Patients, instead of relying on anaesthetists to prescribe analgesia and on nurses to administer it, have to feel able to take control of their analgesia and then to . . . [Full Text of this Article]

A new role for staff?

The need for research into the staff perspective

Towards a realistic understanding of PCA

References


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