Nurses' Attitude, Practices and Barriers towards PainManagement of Elderly Patients with Cancer

Abstract

Background: The population of elderly patients is growing with increasing prevalence of cancer diagnoses and cancer-related pain syndromes. Cancer pain occur at any time in the disease's progression. It is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon that need proper assessment, management and evaluation based on current nursing knowledge and practices. Despite the fact that developing adequate pain control is a top priority for cancer patients. Many barriers to undertreatment exist among professionals, which might have an impact on successful pain management. Aim : to assess nurses' attitude, practices, and barriers towards pain management of elderly patients with cancer. Method : In this study. a descriptive correlational research design was used. The study was carried out at medical, surgical, and hematological departments in Oncology Center Mansoura University. A convenience sample of 122 nurses was used in this study. 4 tools were used to collect data.: Nurses' structured interview schedule, nurses' attitude toward pain management interview schedule, nurses' practices interview schedule regarding cancer pain management and nurses' barriers for cancer pain management interview schedule. Results : majority of studied nurses (82.8%) had positive attitude toward pain management, 91% of them had poor practice regarding cancer pain management and 60.7% of studied nurses had little barrier toward pain management of elderly patients with cancer. Conclusion : Nurses' have positive attitude and poor practices regarding pain management of elderly patients with cancer. The main barriers to effective cancer pain management were inadequate knowledge about pain management and opioids. Recommendation: developing standard guidelines for pain management for oncology hospital staff nurses.