A comparative descriptive study of patients admitted to a high dependency unit after major and non-major surgery.

Monash Medical Centre, a large major hospital in Melbourne Australia, recently opened a high dependency unit (HDU) at its Moorabbin campus. The present study was designed to examine two patient groups admitted to the unit after major and non-major surgical procedures. Another aim in the study was to describe the services required by these patients and to compare the two groups with regard to length of stay in the HDU, severity of illness, and pain control. The results of this study indicate that the HDU provided a valuable and needed service to a population of patients who have been identified as at risk of postoperative complications. The findings appear to agree with other research which suggests that nurses consistently rate patients' pain as less severe than patients' own ratings of pain indicate. Thus nurses appear to overestimate patients' perception of pain control. This study again indicates that even though it is generally recognised by nurses that patients are in pain the management of it is such that pain continues to be inadequately controlled.