Effects of a continuing education program on nurses' pain assessment practices

Abstract

Surgical nurses from five Dutch general hospitals participated in a continuing education program on pain assessment and management. A pretest-posttest controlled intervention study revealed that the program led to an increase in the quality of activities relevant to taking pain histories. Although this increase in quality was most apparent 1 month after the program, it was still observable 6 months after the program. There were, however, no effects on the number of activities relevant to taking pain histories, or on the number of nurses who used direct questioning as a method to determine pain. There may be several explanations for these results, including nurses' limited openness to new approaches, a lack of support from physicians and nurse superiors, and that program items were not translated into ward policy.

Self-reported Practice, Confidence, and Knowledge About Palliative Care of Nurses in a Japanese Regional Cancer Center: Longitudinal Study After 1-Year Activity of Palliative Care Team

“…To date, many studies from Western countries have identified knowledge and skill deficits about palliative care in medical professionals, [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] and multiple interventions have been tried to improve these deficits. [9][10][11][12][13][14] However, to date, there have been no similar studies in Japan. In addition, existing studies have predominantly focused on pain control, and broader areas of palliative care have rarely been systemically investigated.…”

“…Sources included the Palliative Care Quiz for Nursing, 1,2 literature review, in-depth interviews with 5 nurses, and discussions among ourselves. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] Most questions were based on the published evidence from empirical studies. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26] The face validity and acceptability of the questionnaire was confirmed by a pilot test.…”

Determinants of nurses' knowledge gap on pain management in Ghana

“…Pain education for nursing students and continuing education for practising nurses is deemed necessary to enhance pain management. Structured pain education programmes for nursing students (Watt-Watson et al, 2004) and practising nurses (Francke et al, 1997) have led to improved pain management practices.…”

Effects of a nursing pain programme on patient outcomes

“…However, it is not completely clear which changes in nurses' interventions are related to the decrease in patients' pain intensity. Other parts of the study revealed that the quality of nurses' psychosocial, physical and relaxation interventions, and the quality of nurses' analgesic administrations improved (Francke, 1996;Francke et al, 1996b and1997). It is not very likely that effects on pain intensity are caused by quality improvements of psychosocial interventions, since there are no significant 12.1 (7.1) 9.6 (6.6) breast day 2 exp.…”

“…Within this scope, a CE programme on pain assessment and management was evaluated in both nurses and patients. In Francke (1996) and Francke et al (1996b and1997) the effects of the CE pro-gramme on nurses were described. To summarize, the programme led to an increase in the quality of nurses' pain assessment practices.…”