Experiences and perspectives of adults on using opioids for pain management in the postoperative period

OBJECTIVE To identify and examine the available studies regarding adult perceptions and experiences of postoperative opioid pain management. INTRODUCTION The opioid crisis has been acknowledged as a significant clinical and social problem in many countries. Opioids are often initiated after surgery and may be continued on hospital discharge. There is no consensus on the optimal strategy for integrating patients’ views in postoperative opioid prescribing. The aim of this review is to explore the literature on adults’ experiences with postoperative opioid pain management. INCLUSION CRITERIA This review will consider all qualitative studies and mixed-method studies with qualitative approaches that explored adults’ opinions or concerns on opioids and/or opioid reduction, and adults’ satisfaction with pain control in this context. Participants in the studies should be adults who had undertaken any type of surgery and have had opioid prescriptions for pain management. METHODS This scoping review will be carried out in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) methodology and will utilise the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses extension for scoping reviews (PRISMA-ScR) reporting guideline and checklist. Searches will be conducted in Ovid MEDLINE, PsycInfo, EMBASE and CINAHL (EBSCO). Studies published in the English language will be included with no time limit. The screening and selection of studies will be carried out independently by three reviewers. Then data extraction process will be conducted by the main reviewer and the reviewer's supervisors independently. A descriptive qualitative content analysis will be utilised for data synthesis. The final report will contain a methodological quality assessment, with the findings being presented, including the knowledge gaps and recommendations for research.