The goals of the study were to understand the cultural meaning that the nursing team and burn patients attribute to burn pain. Participant observations were carried out during one year at a Burn Unit. Semi-structured interviews with four nurses, five nursing auxiliaries and 12 patients were recorded. The burn pain is understood by nurses as physical and emotional pain. For professionals and patients, bath and dressing changes are stressful. For patients, burn pain is terrible and they can not explain it. However, they feel they should hold it up.
pain; burns; ethnography