Journal d'anesthésiologie clinique : accès libre

Nurses Knowledge Regarding Pain Management among Patients in Critical Care Units

Abstract

Nazia Shuaib

Introduction: Pain management in critical care units has been a concern for long to be addressed. Unalleviated pain is the most common ailments among critical patients that may seriously affect their wellbeing, health outcomes and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of nurses regarding pain management in critically ill patients.

Material and methods: Descriptive cross sectional study design was used to carry out the study. A total of 196 nurses were recruited from the public sector hospitals in Lahore and Islamabad. Non-probability convenience sampling technique was used for the selection of the participants with premeditated inclusion criteria. A selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect the required data after the written consent was secured. The data were analyzed for descriptive and inferential statistics using SPSS.

Results: Majority of the nurses (74%) showed the cryptogram of poor knowledge regarding pain management, 23% were found as having average knowledge, and only 1.5% was reported to have good knowledge. In addition a very scare percentage of 0.5% among nurses demonstrated excellent knowledge regarding pain management according to the proposed data collection instruments

Conclusion: The level of knowledge of the nurses working in critical care units was not up to the required standards. Therefore, there is a dire need to motivate and facilitate nurses for continuation of professional education programs to prepare them for the proper training of pain management that in turn will help to vanish the miseries of patients resulting in terms of having pain.