Paper
Wednesday, 19 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Acute Care Initiatives
Pain Management: Nurse's Knowledge and Factors Influencing Pain Medication Administration
Linda K. Cook, PhD, RN, CCRN1, D. W. Stephenson, RN, BS, AAS2, Denise L. Colton, BSN, RN1, and Lisa Q. Terry, BA, RN, AA3. (1) Critical Care, Doctors Community Hospital, Lanham, MD, USA, (2) Education, Doctors Community Hospital, Lanham, MD, USA, (3) Critical Care, Doctors Community Hosptial, Lanham, MD, USA
Learning Objective #1: Factors that "sometimes" influence nurses response to patient complaint of pain.
Learning Objective #2: Identify areas of knowledge deficits in nurses regarding pain management.
Effective pain management continues to be a complaint of patients. Despite the emphasis on patient’s right to appropriate pain management and increased awareness of the detrimental effects inadequately treated and managed pain the healthcare system continues to under treat pain. This study was conducted to investigate nurses’ knowledge and attitudes towards pain management through the use of the 1997 Ferrell and McCaffrey’s Nurses Knowledge and Attitude Survey Regarding Pain.  The survey was modified to exclude questions regarding cancer and pediatric pain issues and to include question regarding attendance at a pain class and if several other factors influenced nurses response to patient complaints of pain. This study was conducted at a small urban community hospital and involved a 24 bed medical-surgical critical care unit and an orthopedic unit. The nursing staff and patient population is representative of multiple cultures. One hundred five nurses were eligible to participate in the study with 81 (77%) returning completed surveys. The major characteristic of the sample are 72 (88.9%) were female, 76 (88%) registered nurses with 1-5 years (42%) experience in nursing.  The most frequent education level was BSN (40.7%).  The scores on the Nurses Knowledge and Attitude Survey ranged from 39-94% (67.6 ±11.33; Mode = 71%).  Of the 81 respondents, 43 (53.1%) had attended a pain assessment class. In response to effect of gender and culture on reporting of pain, 71 (87.7%) felt that these influenced the patients reporting of pain.  Factors that were identified as “sometimes” influencing the nurses’ response to patient complaints of pain included: visual assessment of the patient 59 (72.8%), medical diagnosis 45 (55.6%), frequency of request for pain medication 44 (54.3%) and the nurse’s cultural background 25 (30.9%). Future research plans include chart reviews of pain assessment and management documentation and patient interviews regarding satisfaction of pain management.

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