A Questionnaire to Evaluate the Knowledge and Attitudes of Health Care Providers on Pain

Abstract

The aims of this study were to survey the knowledge and attitudes of Italian health care professionals toward pain and develop a valid instrument to assess pain knowledge of physicians and nurses. A 21-item questionnaire on a Likert scale was given to 4,961 health professionals in 20 hospitals in Italy who volunteered to participate in the study. The results were analyzed psychometrically in three phases: the Principal Component Analysis phase identified two components, of which only the one that had 10 items about pain knowledge and attitudes (PAK) was studied; the Homogeneity Analysis revealed its acceptable internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha=0.72) and confirmed the Likert equidistance of the item options response; and the Confirmatory Factor Analysis proved that it had a very good construct validity. A standardized score was calculated on the PAK questionnaire using the final 10 selected items, considering 100% as the best level of knowledge of pain management and 0% as the worst. The standardized mean score on the whole sample was equal to 52.6% (95% Confidence Interval: 52.3%-53.0%). There was a statistically significant difference (P<0.001) in percentage score between physicians (56.5%) and nurses (51.3%). Knowledge was best among physicians in Anesthesiology and Emergency; this was followed by doctors in Medicine and then surgeons. The knowledge of nurses was almost constant. This scale fills a void by providing a validated instrument for testing the general knowledge about pain treatment of hospital staff. It is brief and can easily be administered to a considerable number of people.

Pain knowledge and attitude: a survey among nurses in 23 health institutions in Western Ethiopia

“…The nurses demonstrated significant misconceptions in all the components of this domain namely items related to placebo as diagnostic means; the role of pain estimation by professionals; dosage timing in chronic pain, the authenticity of patients pain reporting. The misconception noted in this study regarding the attention paid to and assessment of pain has also been demonstrated in other settings (14,16).…”

“…To assess the knowledge and attitude towards pain, a questionnaire that contain 22 items having a four Likert scales called SD (Strongly Disagree), D (Disagree), A (Agree), and SA (Strongly Agree) were adopted from previously validated tools (14,16) apart from the socio-demographic characteristics. The tool was prepared and administered via English.…”

“…These includes: attention given to and assessment of pain (Items 1, 4,6,11,12,13,15,16,21); Opioid related issues (Items 2, 5,8,10,17,18,19,20); General principles of pain management (Items 3,4,7,16,22); Pain management issues in children (Items 8 and 9); and Non-pharmacologic aspect of pain management (Item 14). As it is vividly seen some of the items are multidimensional assessing more than one domain of pain and its management.…”

“…Therefore, nurses should have a solid foundation of knowledge about pain management and develop a positive attitude towards it to assess patients' condition and to deliver individualized care to each one so as to reduce discomfort and enhance the quality of life Several studies in both developed (5,(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) and developing (17) countries that assessed the knowledge of nurses regarding pain and its management demonstrated deficiency has been noted in the area of attention given to and assessment of pain, opioid related issues, general principles of pain management, pain management in children; and non-pharmacologic aspect of pain management.…”

An Ethnography of the Culture of Pain in a Non-Pediatric Emergency Department

“…An extensive body of research is available on practitioner pain management attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs (Comley & Banks, 2000;Jacob & Puntillo, 1999;PackMabien et al, 2001;Tse & Chan, 2004;Visina, Chen, Gerthoffer, Biggs, & Ting, 2003;Zanolin, et al, 2007). Clinicians' with incorrect assumptions about pain in children and in pain-denigrating attitudes will interpret pain behaviors with that framework in mind (Schechter, 1989).…”