Non-pharmacologic Pain Management Knowledge and Barriers among Nurses in Erbil Hospitals

Abstract

Aim of the study: Pain management is a multidisciplinary approach for easing suffering and improving the patients’ quality of life and nurses play a significant role in providing pain assessment and treatment. Non-pharmacological pain management is any intervention intended to improve health or well-being that does not involve the use of any drugs or medicine. This study aimed to assess the nurses’ knowledge and their barriers regard-ing non-pharmacologic pain management. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out at Hawler, Rizgary and Nanakaly teaching hospitals in medical and oncology wards on a non-probability purposive sample of 100 nurses who worked in the above wards. The data was collected from the end of December to the end of February 2020 through self-reports by nurses using a constructive single choice questionnaire. Each correctly answered item was recorded as 1 and the incorrect one as 0. Results: The higher percentages of nurses, including males aged between (30-39) years, institute graduates, and experienced in jobs between (1-10) years. 69% of nurses have a moderate level of non-pharmacologic pain management, and, 47% of nurses have not applied non-pharmacological pain management in hospitals. Only 16% of them applied, and 37% sometimes applied, psychological and physical methods of non-pharmacologic pain management were more applied by 29% and 23% respectively by nurses than other methods. Nurses had many barriers to using non-pharmacological pain management, like nursing workload and lack of protocol for pain management. Conclusion: This study concluded that the majority of nurses have a fair (moderate) level of knowledge about non-pharmacological pain management and applied by only 16 % of nurses. Nurses have many barriers to using non-pharmacological pain management.