Undergraduate nursing students' knowledge and attitude regarding pain management of children in Upper Egypt

Abstract

Pain assessment and management require nurses to be equipped with adequate knowledge and proper attitudes. This research aimed to assess undergraduate nursing students' knowledge and attitude regarding pain management in children. Descriptive cross-sectional research design was utilized. This work was implemented at Faculty of Nursing in Assiut University. The study subjects consisted of convenient sample of undergraduate nursing students at third and fourth year during the academic year 2015-2016. One tool was used for this study consisted of two parts: part I: Demographic questionnaire, and part II: Pediatric Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (PNKAS). Fifty-six percent of undergraduate nursing students had unsatisfactory score regarding PNKAS. The highest percentage 76.2% of participating students had less than 50% of total score of knowledge and attitude regarding pain especially to pharmacological information. The study concluded that nursing students had poor knowledge and attitude regarding pain management by using PNKAS especially in the part of pain assessment and pharmacological pain management. The more contact with pediatric patients the higher the knowledge and positive attitudes among undergraduate nursing students. The study recommended that the pediatric staff should review the curriculum to enrich more about assessment and management of pain.

Pediatric pain management: Knowledge and attitudes among nursing students in Saudi Arabia (A cross-sectional study)

“…This study has shown that most nursing students reported themselves as having a good level of knowledge of pediatric pain and its management; however, their mean total correct score on the PNKAS was low, at 32.1%. This result is consistent with scores reported in previous studies (Al-Khawaldeh et al, 2013;Al Omari, 2016;Chiang et al, 2006;Chow and Chan, 2015;Gadallah et al, 2017;Khalaileh and Qadire, 2013;Ortiz et al, 2015;Rahimi-Madiseh et al, 2010). Table 3: Top 10 questions answered incorrectly by nursing students (frequency and percentage distribution) (Manworren, 2001) Items Answer N % 39B: "Your assessment, above, is made 2 hours after he received morphine 2 mg IV.…”

“…Nursing students under 30 years of age scored higher than those whose age was 30 years or older, similar to the findings of Ekim and Ocakcı (2013). However, other studies have found no significant age-based difference in nursing students' knowledge and attitudes (Al-Khawaldeh et al, 2013;Gadallah et al, 2017). The above differences may be due to differences in setting, sampling method and size, and subjects' characteristics.…”

“…In addition, the last two questions (Q39 and Q40) are case studies, each of which has two multiple-choice questions. The PNKAS was selected for this study to examine the knowledge and attitudes of nursing students regarding pediatric pain management because of its high level of reliability and validity according to local and international studies (Alotaibi et al, 2019;Chiang et al, 2006;Gadallah et al, 2017;Lunsford, 2015;Manworren, 2001;Ortiz et al, 2015;Al Omari, 2016).…”

“…Similarly, Al Omari (2016) found insufficient knowledge and attitudes regarding pediatric pain and its management, with a total mean score of 18.36% (SD: 6.30) on the PNKAS scale for 101 nursing students at three private universities in Jordan. A recent cross-sectional study in Egypt was conducted by Gadallah et al (2017) to assess thirdyear and fourth-year nursing bachelor's students' attitudes and knowledge of pediatric pain management; the study also used the PNKAS scale. The study found that three-fourths of participants (76.2%) answered less than half of the questions correctly, particularly those relating to pharmacology and its interventions.…”

Paediatric pain management: knowledge, attitudes, barriers and facilitators among nurses – integrative review

“…Emphasis should be placed on prelicensure nursing curriculum and educational provision across all levels and degrees to ensure that paediatric pain is clearly prominent within undergraduate/prelicensure nursing studies and preparation and that there is an access to the basic knowledge, skills and fundamental needs for effective pain management prior to clinical practice and caring for children in pain (Gadallah et al. ; Mackintosh‐Franklin ).…”