Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Pain Management: A Literature Review

Abstract

Pain is one of the main reasons patients seek help from healthcare professionals and yet research and statistics show that it still remains under-treated. One of the major reasons for this is nurses lacking enough knowledge regarding pain and/or having poor attitudes towards it. The aim of this study is to gain new knowledge and deeper understanding on the topic nurses’ attitude and knowledge towards pain assessment and management to understand the changes in nursing knowledge and attitudes over time and in different countries.

To do this, a systematic literature review was conducted. Following a detailed and systematic process, 13 research articles were selected from 4 databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, and Google Scholar). These articles from different countries and different years of publishing were studied in detail and compared together to determine - What are nurses’ level of knowledge and attitudes towards pain management comparatively in different countries?; What developments can be found in nurses’ knowledge and attitudes towards pain management over time (1995-2020)?; What are the major areas of misconception regarding pain among nurses?

The results showed that nurses in all regions studied had poor knowledge and attitudes towards pain, except Chicago. Regions in the United States tended to have better knowledge and attitudes towards pain. A positive and gradual improvement could be seen in all regions studied, in terms of knowledge and attitudes towards pain, over time. The major areas of misconception regarding pain were related to pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, pain assessment. It is recommended that further research of this kind be conducted in more countries, and nursing education and training especially be improved.