Publication:

Prayer and dhikr as spiritual-related interventions for reducing post-surgery pain intensity in moslem’s patients

Background Pain is a sensory and emotional unpleasant condition which faced by patient after have medical-surgery. Spirituality and emotional status are recognized as factors influencing pain scale level of post-surgery patient. This study aimed to determine the effect of prayers and dhikr as spiritual-related activities that can reduce pain level of post-surgery in Moslem’s patient.

Methods This study design was quasi-experiment (pre and post-test) with non-equivalent control group. The total samples involved were 50 post-surgery Moslem’s patients who were divided into two groups: first, the intervention group and second is the control group. Pain level was measured using a Numerical Rating Scale (NRS). Prayers and Dhikr interventions were run 6 hour after providing analgesic.

Results The results showed that the decreasing mean score of pain level in intervention group was higher (1.72) than control group (0.88). Furthermore, there were statistically significantly difference of mean score of pain level between intervention group and control group (p =0.0005).

Conclusions In Moslem patients, prayer and dhikr can be an alternative of non-pharmacological pain management to reduce the level of post-surgery pain intensity.