Effectiveness of INROADS into pain management, a nursing educational intervention

Nurses play a critical role in managing a patient's pain, from initial evaluation to ongoing patient education. However, little information exists on current gaps in nurses' knowledge and their pain-related decision making. To this end, an educational intervention-the INROADS initiative-was designed to improve the knowledge of nurses involved in patient management as well as to guide them toward practices that are consistent with currently available evidence. The results from an evaluation of this intervention show that nurses participating in the INROADS program were 52% more likely to make evidence-based care choices for their patients, compared with a control group of demographically similar nurses. The effect of this program may reinforce it as a model for the design of future interventions for pain management.