Determination of Knowledge and Attitudes of Nurses About Pain Management: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge and attitudes of nurses working in surgical and internal medicine clinics on pain management. Methods: This study is descriptive and cross-sectional. A total of 140 nurses working in surgical and internal clinics in a hospital participated in the study. The data were obtained by questionnaire form and Nursing’s Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (NKASRP). Data were analyzed by using SPSS 22.0 software. In the evaluation of the data; ANOVA, Mann Whitney U, Kruskal Wallis significance test, and logistic regression analysis were used. Results: The mean score of the NKASRP scale of the nurses was 17.72±3.72. It was found that working for more than ten years, receiving graduate education and frequent encounters with painful patients were associated with a high level of knowledge. The probability of having sufficient knowledge of nurses working in surgical clinics was found to be 1.12 times higher (95% CI: 1.02-1.24) than nurses working in internal medicine clinics. Conclusions: Effective pain management requires the nurse's correct knowledge, attitude and assessment related to pain. The present study determined that nurses had a lack of knowledge and misconceptions about pain assessment and pain medication use, which are the main obstacles to effective pain management.