Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes about Pain: Personal and Professional Characteristics and Patient Reported Pain...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Healthcare Management
• Patient Experience

Background:

• Pain management is a critical nursing-sensitive indicator, yet often inadequately addressed in healthcare settings.
• Enhancing nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding pain may significantly improve patient outcomes and satisfaction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess nurses' knowledge and attitudes about pain (KAP) across various healthcare settings.
• To identify professional and personal characteristics influencing nurses' KAP.
• To examine the correlation between nurses' KAP and patient satisfaction scores (HCAHPS).

Main Methods:

• A descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational study was conducted with 217 registered nurses in acute, ambulatory, and long-term care settings.
• Nurses completed a Pain Knowledge and Attitudes Survey.
• Survey scores were analyzed for predictors and correlated with unit-based HCAHPS patient satisfaction data.

Main Results:

• Nurses achieved an average KAP score of 72%, with long-term care nurses scoring highest.
• Factors predicting higher KAP scores included over 5 years of experience, nursing certification, and recent pain education, explaining 9.8% of variance.
• Unit mean KAP scores showed a strong positive correlation with unit-based HCAHPS scores (r=0.917, p=0.01).

Conclusions:

• Enhanced nurse knowledge and attitudes about pain appear to positively influence patient satisfaction with pain management.
• Nursing certification and continuous pain education are associated with better KAP.
• Further research is warranted to establish a direct causal link between nurse KAP and objective patient outcomes.