Knowledge, attitudes, practices and challenges faced by nurses in pain management among surgical patients, in one Referral Hospital in Rwanda

Abstract

Introduction: Pain is one of the major symptoms experienced by patients and is the major reason that brings patients to the hospital. The nurses have big role to play in the management of patients‟ pain because they are often the point of contact between the physicians and the patients and very often the nurses are the only one they may be able to report to, and their ability to respond to them will determine the patients‟ outcome. Purpose of the study: to determine knowledge, attitudes, practices and challenges faced by nurses in pain management among surgical patients, in one referral hospital in Rwanda. Specific objectives: to identify pain management practices among nurses caring for surgical patients, to determine the level of knowledge of nurses about pain management among surgical patients, to determine the attitudes of nurses caring for surgical patients towards pain management, to identify the barriers or challenges that nurses face regarding pain management. Methodology: A quantitative approach, descriptive cross-sectional design was used. The study was conducted at CHUB. Population was all nurses working in the four services: ICU, surgical ward, emergency and operating theatre. Convenience sampling was used in this study. Sample size was all nurses working in those services (87 nurses). Pilot study was conducted on 10 nurses. A questionnaire was used to gather data. Data was entered into SPSS version 23. Results: the study found that nurses managing surgical patients had poor and insufficient knowledge, negative attitudes and poor practices related to pain management; several barriers were also identified to effective pain management. Conclusion: Practices related to assessment and management of pain is still poor in the study setting and this was due to many factors as lack of knowledge, negative attitudes and other identified barriers. Recommendations: Quality improvement projects regarding pain management need to be conducted; supervision and monitoring of daily nursing activities must be done, ensuring that pain is assessed and documented together with other vital signs; CPDs, refresher in service trainings regarding pain assessment and pain management; pain management should be incorporated and reinforced into nursing and other health related professions curriculum.