Enhancing Knowledge and Attitudes in Pain Management: A Pain Management Education Program for Nursing Home Staff

The aim of the study was to examine the effectiveness of a pain management program (PMP) in enhancing the knowledge and attitudes of health care workers in pain management. Many nursing home residents suffer from pain, and treatment of pain is often inadequate. Failure of health care workers to assess pain and their insufficient knowledge of pain management are barriers to adequate treatment. It was a quasiexperimental pretest and posttest study. Four nursing homes were approached, and 88 staff joined the 8-week PMP. Demographics and the knowledge and attitudes regarding pain were collected with the use of the Nurse’s Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain–Chinese version (NKASRP-C) before and after the PMP. A deficit in knowledge and attitudes related to pain management was prominent before the PMP, and there was a significant increase in pain knowledge and attitudes from 7.9 ± SD 3.52 to 19.2 ± SD4.4 (p < .05) after the 8-week PMP. A PMP can improve the knowledge and attitudes of nursing staff and enable them to provide adequate and appropriate care to older persons in pain. PMPs for nurses and all health care professionals are important in enhancing care for older adults and to inform policy on the provision of pain management.     

Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Neonatal Pain Among Nursing Staff of Pediatric Department: An Indian Experience

Neonates receiving care in intensive care units are highly likely to experience pain due to investigations and/or treatments carried out by the health care providers. Neonates are a vulnerable population because they are unable to vocalize their pain. Unaddressed and mismanaged pain can not only affect the child’s comfort, but also may alter the development and cognitive abilities of the child in a later part of his/her life. Therefore it is entirely the caregiver’s responsibility to accurately assess and manage neonatal pain. We assessed and compared the knowledge and attitudes regarding neonatal pain among the nurses posted in the various units of a pediatric department [pediatric ward, pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) and neonatal intensive care unit (NICU)]. An appropriately modified Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain questionnaire was consensually validated, pretested, and then administered to the nursing staff of the pediatric department at a department at a hospital in Gujarat. Data were entered in Epi-Info and analyzed with the use of SPSS 14.0. The questionnaire was administered to 41 nurses working in the Department of Pediatrics, and the response rate was 97.5%. Mean age of the nurses in the study sample was 25.75 years (SD 5.513). The mean total score of the participants was 8.75 out of 17 (SD 2.549), which was unsatisfactory. The mean correct answer rate was 49.67% among the staff of NICU and 48.67% among the pediatric ward and PICU staff. The attitudes among the nurses were assessed. It was concluded that the nurses lack knowledge and that their attitudes also were hindering pain management. One of the barriers identified by the nurses was that physicians do not prescribe analgesics for managing neonatal pain. So not only the nursing staff, but all of the caregivers involved in neonatal care may be lacking in knowledge and hold perceptions and attitudes that hamper neonatal pain management.     

老年科护士疼痛管理知识和态度现状调查

目的 了解山西太原老年科护士对疼痛认知和态度情况.方法 采用自行设计的一般资料调查、护理人员疼痛管理知识和态度问卷,对太原市老年科204名护理人员进行调查,根据得分低的条目内容给予相关对策以提高老年科护士的疼痛管理能力.结果 调查的204名护士均为女性,疼痛管理知识和态度问卷得分为(17.5±0.2)分,最高分为25分,最低分为9分,答对率最高为62.5%,总体正确率为(42.5±0.5)%;结论 老年科护士疼痛管理认知和态度得分较低,疼痛方面知识有待提高,相关部门应加强该方面的培训,以提高老年护理服务的质量,继而提高老年人的生活质量.     

Knowledge and Attitudes Regarding Pain Management of Pediatric Nurses in Turkey

Nurses play an important role in managing children’s pain. The nurse’s accurate assessment, appropriate intervention, and evaluation of pain relief measures are necessary for positive patient outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine the level of knowledge and attitudes of pediatric nurses regarding the child’s pain. The Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitude Survey (PNKAS) was used to evaluate the nurses’ knowledge and attitudes. The PNKAS consists of 40 questions. In this study, 29.9% of nurses had a diploma and 40.6% associate’s, 25.0% bachelor’s, and 4.5% master’s degree, and respondents had an everage 6.1 years pediatric nursing experience. The total mean score on the PNKAS scale was 38.2%. The highest score was 65%, and the lowest score 15%. The findings of the survey show that pediatric nurses in Turkey have insufficient knowledge regarding pain management and could benefit from additional education on that issue.     

Development of Knowledge and Attitudes Survey on Pain Management for Korean Long-term Care Professionals

PurposeInappropriate knowledge and attitude toward pain management of professionals has been pointed to be major obstacles to effective pain management in long-term care setting. The purpose of this study was to develop the knowledge and attitudes survey on pain management for Korean long-term care (LTC) professionals (KASP-K).MethodsTo develop the KASP-K, the knowledge and attitudes survey regarding pain developed by Ferrell and McCaffery in 2014 was amended after a review of broad literature and the latest pain management standards. A rigorous validation process of the KASP-K was performed by testing the content validity, item difficulty and discrimination index, construct validity, test–retest reliability, and internal consistency.ResultsThe KASP-K consisted of 22 items and showed a content validity index of >0.7. The average difficulty of the KASP-K was 0.56 and the discrimination index was >0.2. The construct validity of the KASP-K was verified because of the differences in the sum scores depending on pain education (t = 2.30, p = .024). The test–retest reliability was r = .79 (p < .001) and the Cronbach's alpha was 0.73.ConclusionThis preliminary evaluation of the KASP-K demonstrated acceptable validity and reliability. The KASP-K will be able to provide scientific and empirical data regarding the knowledge of and attitude toward pain management by LTC professionals.     

本科实习护生疼痛管理知识认知现状调查

目的 了解本科实习护生对疼痛管理知识的认知现状.分析学校疼痛教育存在的问题,以探讨针对性的对策.方法 采用自行设计的问卷对90名来自浙江省内外各医学院校本科实习护生进行疼痛管理知识及培训状况调查.结果 本科实习护生对疼痛管理知识的认知存在偏差,其中在对止痛药物知识和相信病人疼痛主诉上更为明显.在20个项目中有7个项目认识错误的护生超过50%,错误率最高的是"吗啡等麻醉止痛药如果超过一定的用量,即使再增加其用量也不会提高疼痛的缓解作用".错误率93%;其次为"根据病人的身高、体质量比根据病人疼痛的主观报告来决定麻醉药的剂量更为精确",错误率72%;当病人服用药物达到3～6个月时,有93%本科实习护生认为使用麻醉药发生成瘾的可能性≥25%.结论 本科实习护生对疼痛管理知识的认知存在偏差,其中在对止痛药物知识和相信病人疼痛主诉上更为明显;本科实习护生存在着对疼痛药物成瘾性的过度担心.目前学校对疼痛管理教育还缺乏系统规范的课程设置,建议学校改进规范疼痛管理知识的课程学习,同时对毕业后的护士需要设计有效的疼痛培训项目来提高护士对疼痛管理的认知水平.