Final Year Nursing Students’ Knowledge and Attitudes regarding Children’s Pain

Abstract

Pain is one of the commonest reasons why children visit the hospital. Inadequately treated pain in children can negatively affect their physical, psychological, and social well-being; it also places financial burden on families of affected children and healthcare systems in general. Considering the eventual suffering of vulnerable children and their families if nursing students are insufficiently educated and ill-prepared, the current study aimed at assessing final year nursing student’s knowledge and attitudes pertaining to pediatric pain. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 final year undergraduate nursing students at a private university college in Ghana. In addition to their ages and gender, the students responded to the 42 individual items on the Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitudes Survey regarding pain (PNKAS) instrument. Descriptive statistical analysis was aided by the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25 software. The mean age of the final year nursing students was 29 years (range of 21 to 47 years); a majority of them were females (78%). Participants had an average (SD) correct answer score of 44.0% (10.6%). Good pediatric pain knowledge and attitudes were observed in items that were related to the individualized and multidimensional nature of the pain experience and its treatment, benefits of pre-emptive analgesia, pharmacodynamics, and pain assessment. Poor pediatric pain knowledge and attitudes occurred in items that focused on pain perceptions, opioid drug administration, useful pain medications, pain physiology, and nonpharmacological pain management interventions. Final year nursing students have insufficient knowledge and attitudes toward children’s pain management. Areas of good and poor pediatric pain knowledge and attitudes should be considered when designing and implementing educational interventions on this subject. Curricular revisions should be made on existing nursing curriculum to lay more emphasis on children’s pain management and use educational interventions that support knowledge translation for improved care.

The effects of pain management education on knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs in nursing students in Turkey: A quasi‐experimental study

“…This shows that the students had inadequate knowledge and inappropriate attitudes about pain and its management, which is consistent with the literature. [11][12][13]34,35 In the current study, the nursing students were found to have enhanced knowledge and attitudes just after the education (76.80%) and at 3 months after the education (65.91%) compared to their knowledge and attitudes before the education (45.85%). The lower score for knowledge and attitudes at 3 months after the education compared to the score just after the education suggests the effect of education on knowledge and attitudes.…”

Facilitation of nursing students' competency acquisition for paediatric pain management in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review

“…Of these, 16 studies evaluated the competency for PPM among nurses and nursing students (6,9,(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34), eight explored factors impacting PPM by nurses (26,(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41), four studies evaluated the effect of educational programs for nurses on improving pain management in children (12,34,42,43), one explored the capacity of nurse educators and preceptors to facilitate nursing students knowledge development about PPM (44), one studied educational needs of nurses on paediatric units (45). Twenty-two (22) studies included nurses in clinical settings as study participants, 6 PPM?…”

“…Five studies used the Paediatric Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey for pain (PNKAS) to assess the competency of nursing students for PPM (6,9,25,27,29). In these studies, the mean scores for PNKAS were less than 50% ranging from 18.36% ( 7) to 44% (6), and more than three-quarters of nursing students scored less than 50% to the PNKAS (9,25), indicating unsatisfactory knowledge and attitudes towards PPM.…”

“…Also, 63.9% of student participants selfevaluated their current knowledge as inadequate (32). Although generally, nursing students demonstrated poor knowledge and attitudes towards PPM, studies reported that students had a good understanding that pain is a subjective experience (6,9,25,27,29), the physiopathology of pain (9,34), and the benefits of giving a preemptive treatment of pain to children with the repeated painful procedure (6,9,25,27). Also, in two studies, students exhibited sufficient knowledge and good attitudes regarding pain self-report in children less than 8 years of age for pain assessment (6,32).…”

“…The literature on education about pain management shows that nurses and nursing students exhibit knowledge deficits and lack of confidence for children's pain management. A study that aimed to assess final year nursing students' knowledge and attitudes about paediatric pain showed that under medication was a common issue as a result of lack of knowledge, fear of patient addiction, and inadequate assessment skills (6). Similarly, authors have reported that undergraduate nursing students had a knowledge deficit in the area of pain management and that there was a need to develop specific teaching strategies and more educational materials to enhance their knowledge base about paediatric pain management (PPM) (7)(8)(9).…”