Developing nurses' cancer pain education program and its effect

Lee, Won Hee

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify pain management done by nurses and to develop an educational program for pain management, and also to evaluate the effects of education on the knowledge, attitudes, nurses and on the pain control practice of nurses. The first stage of this study was to identify the process of pain management in cancer units. A focus group interview using 15 nurses who were working in cancer units was conducted for the purpose of convenience sampling. The focus group interview results indicated that pain assessment wasn`t completed systematically, and was mainly dependent on the verbal complaints of patients or caregivers. The educational contents of the nurses were identified. The 2nd stage of this study was to develop a pain education program and to test its effect on nurses. A One Group pre-test/post-test design was utilized. The educational program(6 hours) consisted of: 1) Myths about pain, 2) Pain assessment, 3) Pain management with medications, pharmacological mechanism, 4) Pain management with noninvasive methods, and 5) Questions and discussion. The testing instrument was modified from the nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain(Ferrell and McCaffery, 1996) and face validity was completed by the nursing faculty and a pain clinic physician, and reliability testing was done for 80 RN-BSN students. The purposive convenience sample of 40 nurses participated in the study. Attitudes and Knowledge changes were measured 2 weeks prior to education and 4 weeks after the education. Ad hoc testing was done 8 weeks after the education with the review of 89 patients' charts. 1. The result were statistically significant on knowledge and changes in attitudes in pain management (t=-4.079, p<0.001). 2. The contents of 89 nursing records were analyzed and it was found that there were great changes in the pain description The assessment of pain severity was measured using VAS. Recommendations for further study are as follows: 1. Continuous pain education for nurses, physicians and students of the health professions is recommended. 2. There is a great need to develop a program for resolving decisional conflicts experienced by nurses in the pain management process.