Introduction:
Postoperative pain treatment should be aimed at: relieving the sick, avoiding the physiological effects of pain, and preventing psychological complications such as anxiety and fear.

Aim of the research:
The analysis of the postoperative pain felt in patients hospitalised in surgical wards.

Material and methods:
The research made use of the diagnostic survey method using survey techniques. The research tool was the author’s questionnaire and the McGill Pain Questionnaire (R. Melzack). The research was conducted in December 2015 and January and February 2016 on a group of 100 patients of the Health Care Facility in Dębica from the General Surgery and Trauma Surgery and Orthopaedics wards. The survey was completed voluntarily and anonymously. Calculations were made using SPSS software. The level of significance adopted was p < 0.05.

Results:
On the second day after the surgery, the patients defined their pain most often as light (39%) or mild (34%), 17% identified pain as average, 5% as strong, and 5% of patients did not feel pain at all. Seven per cent of patients did not notice any relief after the administration of painkillers, in half of the patients the painkillers helped to overcome the pain, and 43% of those surveyed felt partial relief.

Conclusions:
One should pay more attention to the issue of post-operative pain. More time should be spent talking with the patient in order to explain the surgery proceedings. Despite widespread use of painkillers, pain is felt by the majority of patients after surgery.