Knowledge, attitude and practice of nurses in paediatric units on pain assessment and management in selected facilities in Kumasi and Pramso
Loading...
Date
July, 2019
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Adequate knowledge and attitude of nurses towards paediatric pain has a positive patient
outcome during their hospitalization. However the knowledge, attitude and practices of
assessment and management of children’s pain by nurses in Ghana have been explored to a
limited extent. The study sought to describe the Knowledge and Attitude of nurses and also
examine their practices in assessment and management of pain in Paediatric Units. A concurrent
mixed method study was adopted to achieve the objective of the study. The paediatric pain
knowledge and attitude questionnaire (PPKAQ) was used as survey instrument among 65
conveniently sampled nurses to measure their knowledge and attitude. Using participatory
observation, the practices of pain assessment and management of 40 nurses were also assessed
with the aid of a checklist. The findings from the quantitative study indicated that the nurses’
knowledge and attitude towards pain was not adequate (56.28%). The participants had the
highest mean percentage of 59.15% in the domain of Non-Drug Pain Relief Methods and the
lowest mean of 50.00% in the domain of Using Drugs to Relief Pain. These was notably below
the 80% benchmark acceptable for nurses to deliver appropriate care to patients who are
experiencing pain. There was a moderate, positive correlation between knowledge and attitude
items (r=0.424, p<.001) on the PPKAQ instrument. An inductive analyses of the qualitative
data indicated that the nurses’ practices on pain assessment and management were below the
optimum, where they cited several personal and organizational cultural factors that hindered
their provision of effective pain management in children. The findings of this study provide an
insight to the knowledge and attitude as well as the practices of nurses for paediatric pain
assessment and management. We recommend stakeholders to provide needed resources and
regular training for the nurses to ensure they improve pain care for children and their families.
Description
Keywords
Paediatric units, Nurses, Pain assessment, Pain management