Final-semester nursing studentś knowledge and attitude regarding pain management in resources limited setting

Abstract

BackgroundStudies suggest that pain assessment and management by appropriately trained and knowledgeable nurses significantly reduce patients suffering. This study aimed to investigate final-semester nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes toward pain management. MethodologyA descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the knowledge and attitudes of 190 final-semester nursing students regarding pain management. The Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitude Survey Regarding Pain (NKASRP) tool was used to collect data. We surveyed all final-semester nursing students from the Asmara College of Health Sciences. The collected data were entered into SPSS version 25. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data, and a p value < 0.05 was considered significant throughout the analysis. ResultThe mean score for knowledge and attitude was 47.8 % (SD = 11.50). One-way ANOVA revealed that the influence of education and nursing specialisation was statistically significant, p < 0.001. Students in the bachelor’s programme [mean (M) = 52.72 %, standard deviation (SD) = 12.48] and master’s programme (M = 59.03 %, SD = 12.54) scored higher than those in the diploma programme (M = 43.67 %, SD = 8.40), p < 0.001. Similarly, nurse anaesthesia students (M = 61.60, SD = 11.46) and nurse midwifery students (M = 45.14, SD = 8.98) scored significantly higher than general nursing students (M = 58.01, SD = 16.37), p < 0.001. Finally, students’ average knowledge and attitude correlated significantly and positively with their Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA), r = 0.26, p < 0.001. ConclusionFinal semester nursing students had inadequate knowledge and attitudes towards pain management. Therefore, the current nursing curriculum should be revised to include courses that improve nursing students’ knowledge and attitudes about pain management. Courses related to pain focusing on pain physiology, opioid pharmacology, and pain assessment should be included in nursing curricula.