Utilization of Non-Pharmacological Methods and the Perceived Barriers for Adult Postoperative Pain Management by the Nurses at Selected National Hospitals in Asmara, Eritrea

Abstract

Background Postoperative pain remains a concern to both patients and health care professionals. Non-pharmacological pain relief methods have the potential to complement pharmacological interventions and may offer alternative treatment options. The aim of the study was to assess nurses’ utilization of postoperative nurses’ non-pharmacological pain relief methods and the perceived barriers for their implementation in the National Hospitals. Methods Descriptive cross sectional study was conducted among 154 nurses working at the National Referral Hospitals and Sembel Private Hospital. A standardized five-point Likert-scale questionnaire which assesses nurses' utilization of selected non-pharmacological methods and the perceived barriers for the implementation of those methods were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics for the demographic data, independent samples t-test and one way ANOVA for the nurses’ utilization of the non-pharmacological methods and perceived barriers were used to analyze the data. Statistical significance level was set at P < 0.05. Results The study found that emotional support (45.5%), helping with daily activities (67.5%) and creating a comfortable environment (61%) were reported to be the most frequently used methods, whereas the cognitive-behavioral (5.9%) and physical methods (5.8%) were found with less frequency. The results also show that characteristics, such as the nurses' age (p = 0.013), education (p = 0.012), work experience (p = 0.001) and place of work (p = 0.001), were significantly related to the use of non-pharmacological methods. Among the various perceived barriers, health care system related barriers such as heavy work load (87.7%), shortage of time (84.4%), limited resources (82.5%), deficit in the guidelines for pain management (77.3%), lack of administrative support (76.6%) followed by patient related barriers such as patients uncooperative behavior (57.1%) were identified. Conclusion Only few of the non-pharmacological methods were found to be utilized by the nurses as pain relieving strategies and various perceived barriers are existing among the nurses towards the utilization of these methods. Nurses in these settings need training and education on non-pharmacological pain relief methods, particularly on methods that are utilized less often.

Knowledge, Attitude, and Associated Factors towards Nonpharmacological Pain Management among Nurses Working at Amhara Region Comprehensive Specialized Hospitals, Ethiopia

“…Nurses who had master's degrees were nearly four times more likely, and BSc nurses were about three times more likely to have adequate knowledge as compared to diploma nurses. is is similar to studies conducted in Benishangul-Gumuz [8], Eritrea [22], Saudi Arabia [17], China [23], and the USA [24]. e possible justification for this could be that as nurses' educational status increases, they could have a higher probability of getting up-to-date information regarding nonpharmacological pain management, as well as they might have a higher chance to review different kinds of literature regarding the topic and are more likely to apply their knowledge in practice to treat the patient's pain.…”

Knowledge and Practice of Nurses towards Non-Pharmacological Pain Management Methods and Associated Factors at West Arsi Zone Public Hospitals, Oromia, Ethiopia, 2021: A Cross-Sectional Institution Based Study

“…books and get updated information in non-pharmacological pain management; therefore they could have achieved good scores in practice questions.Those nurses between the age of 30-39years were 2.276(AOR = 2.276, 95%=1.344-3.855) times more likely to have good practice as compared to the nurses between the age of 20-29 years. This nding is similar to the study conducted in Singapore(28) and the USA(5), and Eritrea(19) which found out nurses age had effects on the practice of non-pharmacological pain management. This is maybe because as age increases they are more eager in practicing these methods.…”

“…Degree holder nurses were 2.554 (AOR = 2.554, 95%CI = 1.465-4.452) more likely to have good practice as compared to a diploma. This study result is supported by the study done in the USA(5), Singapore(28), Cairo(25), Eretria(19). The possible reason could be nurses with higher educational levels had higher opportunities to review different…”

“…A self-administered and pretested questionnaire was used to collect data from participants. It was Adapted by reviewing related literature with some modi cations by a researcher ( Jira et al, 2020;Kidanemariam et al, 2020). The tool was prepared in English, consisted of closed-ended questions, and has four parts which include: part-1 socio-demographic characteristics which contain 6 items; part-2 nurses' knowledge assessment questions, which contains 12 items; knowledge level of nurses was evaluated based on the score of mean value.…”

Patient satisfaction in the use of non-pharmacological therapies in the management of postoperative pain: a study in a tertiary hospital, Ghana

“…The majority of the participants representing 51.4% were encouraged by nurses to use NPMs for their pain relief (Table 2) which disagrees with other studies where Yaban 2019, as well as Kidanemariam and colleagues, 2020, reported nurses, have either utilized little or no NPMs in the management of pain [32,33].…”