Journal of Community & Public Health Nursing
Open Access

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: The undertreatment of pain is a major clinical problem in critically ill patients. Pain management outcomes for unstable patients of critical care unit are often inadequate. The acquaintance level of nurses about pain management is not known in the study area; therefore it is essential to investigate nurses knowledge, identify learning needs and suggest measures for critical care nurses in order to enhance the importance of pain management. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: Descriptive cross-sectional study design was used to carry out the study. A total of 196 nurses were recruited from the public sector hospitals in Lahore and Islamabad Pakistan through non-probability convenient sampling technique. Pain management in critical care units has been a concern for long to be addressed. Unalleviated pain is the most common ailments among critical patients that may seriously affect their wellbeing, health outcomes and quality of life. The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of nurses regarding pain management in critically ill patients. Findings: Majority of the nurses (74%) showed the cryptogram of poor knowledge regarding pain management, 23% were found as having the average knowledge, and only 1.5% was reported to have good knowledge. In addition, a very scare percentage of 0.5% among nurses demonstrated excellent knowledge regarding pain management according to the proposed data collection instruments. Conclusion & Significance: The level of knowledge of the nurses working in critical care units was not up to the required standards. Therefore, there is a dire need to motivate and facilitate nurses for the continuation of professional education programs to prepare them for the proper training of pain management that in turn will help to vanish the miseries of patients resulting in terms of having pain.

Biography

E-mail: naziashuaib@yahoo.com