Abstract:
Introduction: pain is a condition which is common and treatable in pediatric patients. The management of this condition depends on the knowledge and attitude of a health care professional especially nursing staff. This concept of pain management seems to be new in Rwandan hospitals; however, there is almost no research done to assess the knowledge and attitude of nurses about pediatric pain management
Aim: To assess the knowledge and attitudes regarding pediatric pain management among nurses in three hospitals in Southern Province of Rwanda
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional research design was used. Data were collected from 117 nurses in three hospitals in Southern Province of Rwanda using a self-administered survey. Demographics and the Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitudes Survey was used. Descriptive statistic was used to analyze the frequency distributions, means, and percentages of participants. Descriptive categories included age, gender, the level of education, years in nursing practice. Chi-square was be used to determine a relationship between demographic variables and knowledge and attitudes scores
Results and conclusion: The final scores for nurses were 30% as a minimum, 77.5% as maximum and the mean score was 54.7%.The findings of the survey show that nurses have insufficient knowledge regarding pediatric pain management. None of the sociodemographic variables predicted the scores obtained by the participants ( > 0.05). Due to this deficiency, pain in children remains inadequately managed, which leads to suffering in this population. It is necessary to increase the continued training for nurses
