The Knowledge, Attitudes, Performance, and Barriers of Nurses to Pain in Oncology Settings: A Multi-Center Study

Hyekyung Kim, Soeun Choi, Sue Kim, Jiyeon Lee, Sun-Hee Kim, Insook Lee, Yoonjung Shin, Hye-Young Jang
2021 Asian Oncology Nursing  
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine knowledge, attitudes, performance, and barriers to pain management of nurses working in oncology settings. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 222 nurses in five tertiary hospitals in Korea. The period of data collection was 1 September to 30 November 2018. Participants were surveyed using the Nurse Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (NKASRP), a pain management performance, and barriers questionnaire. The data were
more » ... lyzed through independent t-test and One-way ANOVA, and the post-hoc test was conducted with the Scheffé test using the SPSS 23 program. Results: According to the study, oncology nurses' knowledge and attitudes to pain received a score of 26.4±3.77 (out of 41 points) and the performance received a score of 3.24±0.35 (out of 4 points). Among the barriers to pain management, time constraints were the most frequent medical staff-related factor, and reluctance to take opioids was the most frequent patient-related factor. In terms of factors related to the health care system, strict regulation of opioids was the most significant. There was a significant positive correlation between knowledge and attitude of pain management and performance of pain management. Conclusion: Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that structured education programs to be developed and implemented to enhance knowledge, attitudes, and performance on pain. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs License. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/) If the original work is properly cited and retained without any modification or reproduction, it can be used and re-distributed in any format and medium.
doi:10.5388/aon.2021.21.1.15 fatcat:yanhxyf6yrbtnh5hy45rfzpjia