Post-operative pain assessment and management among nurses in a teaching hospital in ILE-IFE

Abstract

Millions of surgeries performed on patients are accompanied by some degree of pain. Successful outcome of any surgery is partly dependent on pre-, intra- and post-operative pain assessment and management. Nurses are professionally responsible for pain assessment and administration of analgesia, however, poor pain control has been one of patients’ complaints traceable to poor assessment and management. This study was designed to assess nurses’ knowledge and attitude about post-operative pain assessment and management in Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital complex Ile – Ife and Ilesha units. The study was a cross – sectional descriptive survey. The instrument was a validated self administered questionnaire developed by the researchers. Ninety – five nurses from the two units were purposively selected for the study. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 16. The result showed that 53.6% of the participants had poor knowledge of post operative pain assessment and management, while 46.4% had good knowledge. Only 30.5% had positive attitude towards pain assessment and management, while 69.5% had negative attitude. In view of this result, it is recommended that nurses upgrade their knowledge through continuing education. Hospital managers should establish standards and guidelines for assessing and managing post operative pain.

Keywords: Post operative pain, Assessment, Management, Nurses.