Abstract
Background A lack of knowledge and inadequate practices of health care providers (HCPs) are the main obstacles to effective cancer pain management (CPM). The main objective of the study was to evaluate the CPM knowledge, CPM practice, and attitudes towards pharmacists' participation and advanced methods in CPM of physicians, nurses, and pharmacists in China. Methods An open online survey was adopted using social media software (WeChat) as the platform to conduct a nationwide survey of HCPs involved in CPM in public medical institutions at all levels in China from March to June 2019. Results A total of 1279 physicians, 2267 nurses, and 1466 pharmacists participated in the survey. Among the three types of professionals, nurses had the highest level of practical ability (61.63 ± 28.99) and best attitudes towards pharmacists' participation and advanced methods in CPM (72.05 ± 33.71) and physicians had the best mastery of CPM-related knowledge (69.60 ± 28.45), while pharmacists performed the worst in these three aspects (50.04 ± 26.69, 61.49 ± 28.95, and 62.07 ± 36.46, respectively). Only 19.69% of the hospitals had a pharmacist to tumor patient ratio ≥1 : 50. Hierarchical analysis showed that passing a good pain management (GPM) ward program and participating in advanced training had positive impacts on the scores of all three parts in the three professions (ptrend <0.05). Conclusions HCPs' levels of practice, knowledge, and attitudes towards pharmacists and advanced methods of CPM were average in China; however, pharmacists had the worst performance, which demonstrates a need for further improvement. Furthermore, GPM ward programs and advanced trainings are helpful for improving CPM levels.
Highlights
Pain is highly prevalent among patients with cancer, especially those with advanced or metastatic cancer [1]
Undertreatment has been ascribed to some confounding factors that exist in all aspects of health care providers (HCPs), patients, and related systems [9]
Unlike the existing studies with pharmacists [17,18,19], this study investigated the current situation of pharmacists’ participation in cancer pain management (CPM) in China and the demand of medical staff for the services of clinical pharmacists. e use of mobile management systems in CPM has gradually emerged and achieved good results [23]. is study investigated the demand of HCPs for advanced management methods, and the results can provide a reference for improvements to the design and development of related products in the future
Summary
Pain is highly prevalent among patients with cancer, especially those with advanced or metastatic cancer [1]. Clinical pharmacists play active roles in Cancer Pain Multidisciplinary Management Teams and have gained increasing attention [20,21,22] These reports are all based on pharmacists’ self-evaluations, and their service value needs to be recognized by other clinical HCPs. A lack of knowledge and inadequate practices of health care providers (HCPs) are the main obstacles to effective cancer pain management (CPM). Among the three types of professionals, nurses had the highest level of practical ability (61.63 ± 28.99) and best attitudes towards pharmacists’ participation and advanced methods in CPM (72.05 ± 33.71) and physicians had the best mastery of CPM-related knowledge (69.60 ± 28.45), while pharmacists performed the worst in these three aspects (50.04 ± 26.69, 61.49 ± 28.95, and 62.07 ± 36.46, respectively). GPM ward programs and advanced trainings are helpful for improving CPM levels
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
