Date of Award

Summer 8-22-2020

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

Department

Nursing

First Advisor

Camille Payne, Ph.D

Second Advisor

Douglus Turner, Ph.D., DNP

Abstract

Practice Problem: Post-surgical pain (PSP) has not been sufficiently managed despite routine opioid use. The adverse effects of opioids led to the search for non-pharmaceutical intervention.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was, "In an acute hospital surgical setting, does essential oil therapy complement pain and discomfort relief comparing to conventional pain management alone after 6 weeks?”

Evidence: Seven clinical studies, five systematic or integrative reviews, and four conference proceedings were reviewed. The evidence supported lavender essential oil for the alleviation of PSP and discomfort.

Intervention: Patients breathe through a personal lavender essential oil inhaler hourly or every 2 hours.

Outcome: The percentage means of pre- and post-intervention pain score reduction were 39.51+17.73 and 45.77+19.45. The post-intervention group's mean pain score changed from 51.53 to 27.71 pre- and post-opioids. Opioid usage per patient day in two groups was 26.2 mg and 48.6 mg in morphine equivalent. Pain scores pre- and post-essential oil therapy were 6.13 and 2.7.

Conclusion: This project did not confirm the statistical significance of pain score reduction but a higher reduction in the post-intervention group. The results were clinically meaningful to offer lavender essential oil to alleviate PSP and discomfort.

Comments

Scholarly project submitted to the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice.

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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