Nurses’ experiences of barriers and strategies to the management of Patients’ postoperative pain in hospitals in Northern Ghana

• The study identified multifactorial barriers to the management of postoperative patient pain. • The study identified the strategies nurses and midwives used to manage postoperative patient pain. • The study highlighted some of the motivational things that can be implemented to increase nurses’ capacity to manage the postoperative pain of patients. • Participants advocated for improving the nurse-patient ratio and training of nurses on postoperative pain management. The paper describes nurses’ experiences of barriers and strategies to the management of patients’ postoperative pain in hospitals in Northern Ghana. The study employed an exploratory, descriptive qualitative approach to provide a thorough experience of nurses concerning barriers and strategies to effectively manage postoperative pain. The study included registered nurses and midwives with the requisite experience managing postoperative patient pain. A purposive sampling technique was employed to recruit the participants, with a sample size being fourteen based on data saturation. The data was collected using a semi-structured interview guide and analysis using an inductive thematic analysis approach. The study identified two main themes 1. Barriers to postoperative pain management with corresponding subthemes being nurses’ related barriers to postoperative pain management, patients’ related barriers to postoperative pain management, and Institutional related barriers to postoperative pain management. 2. Strategies to effective postoperative pain management, with the subthemes being increased capacity and motivation of nurses and midwives, pharmacological and nonpharmacological nursing management of postoperative pain. The study concludes that though there are barriers to effective patients’ postoperative pain management, nurses and midwives have an understanding of postoperative pain and employ both pharmacological and non-pharmacological strategies for its management. However, nurses and midwives need to be motivated to increase their capacity in managing patient postoperative pain.