Pain is a major symptom that causes suffering among patients diagnosed with cancer. Identifying physicians' and nurses' knowledge, attitudes, and their perceived barriers of cancer pain management is considered an essential step in improving cancer pain relief. The purposes of this study are to compare physicians' and nurses' knowledge and attitudes toward cancer pain management (CPM) and describe their perceived barriers to CPM at oncology units. A descriptive cross-sectional design was utilized to obtain data through self-report questionnaire. The total number of sample size was 207 participants (72 physicians and 135 nurses). Findings revealed that both physicians and nurses had fair knowledge and attitudes toward CPM. Physicians had significantly higher knowledge and better attitudes than nurses (62.3 vs. 51.5%, respectively). Physicians were knowledgeable about pharmacological pain management and opioid addiction but had negative attitudes toward pain assessment. Nurses' knowledge was better in regard of CPM guidelines, while they had poor knowledge about pharmacological pain management and opioid addiction. Physicians and nurses perceived knowledge deficit, lack of pain assessment, opioid unavailability, and lack of psychological interventions as the most common barriers to CPM. It is recommended to integrate recent evidence-based guidelines about CPM in oncology units that aim to improve practice. Offering continuing education courses in hospitals guided by pain teams is another essential recommendation for effective CPM.

Postoperative pain occurs at a high incidence after day-case surgery, with many patients reporting moderate to severe pain. A cross-sectional design was used in this study to estimate the prevalence of postoperative pain in the early postoperative period after day-case surgery and to determine whether there is a relationship between demographic and clinical variables. A convenient sample of 300 patients, aged between 18 and 80 years, was selected from all postoperative patients after day-case surgery over a period of 6 months. At the first 2 hr after surgery, about 70% of patients had either no pain or mild pain at rest and about 30% of patients had moderate to severe pain. About one third of these patients (103; 35.8%) reported mild pain, and about 43% of patients had moderate to severe pain on movement in the first 2 hr after surgery. Furthermore, 25.3% and 41.3% of the patients reported moderate to severe pain during the first 24 hr after hospital discharge at rest and on movement, respectively. Female patients had significantly higher pain scores than male patients (p < .001). Significant decrease in pain scores was reported in the first 2 hr after surgery (mean = 2.2, SD = 2) and within the first 24 hr after discharge (mean = 1.8, SD = 2.2, t(288) = 4.3, p =. 005) at rest. The prevalence of pain among postoperative patients after day-care surgery in Jordan is high. Young adult and female patients have higher pain scores after day-case surgery.

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Objective: Nurses have an integral role in pain assessment and management. Adequate knowledge and positive attitudes toward pain management are essential to provide high-quality nursing care for cancer pain. The purposes of this study are to evaluate nurses' knowledge and attitude toward cancer-related pain and to assess the effectiveness of a pain management education program on nurses' knowledge and attitude toward pain. Methods: A quantitative, experimental design was used. Results: The total number of participants who were surveyed at three measurement points was 131, with a completion rate of 87.3%. Findings revealed that the score of knowledge and attitude toward cancer-related pain ranged from 14 to 35, with a mean of 23.6 (standard deviation [SD] = 4.38). The mean scores of the intervention group and the control group at two measurement points regarding knowledge and attitude toward cancer-related pain were 32.7 (SD = 2.8) and 32.8 (SD = 4.3) and 23 (SD = 5.5) and 22.2 (SD = 3.8), respectively. There were significant differences at three measurement points among the intervention group ( F = 114.3, P < 0.0005). There were no differences in the three measurement points among the control group ( F = 3.4, P = 0.055). Conclusions: Nurses have essential roles in cancer pain. A pain management education program can improve nurses' knowledge and attitude toward cancer-related pain.

Objective: Adult outpatient oncology pain clinics face many challenges due to the increased number of patients, the restriction of electronic appointment systems, overcrowding, waiting time, and patient dissatisfaction. This project aimed to improve clinic time efficiency, decrease clinic waiting time, and improve patient satisfaction. Methods: Lean thinking concepts and their tools, for example, value-stream mapping and value added (VA)/non-VA (NVA) analysis were used. Electronic appointment system slots were stratified based on patient visit type. A total of 187 patients were included in a time-motion survey at three different occasions: preintervention ( n = 67) and two consecutive quarter postintervention time points ( n = 64, n = 56). Simultaneously, patient satisfaction was reported quarterly by a quality management office. Results: The pain clinic workflow became more efficient; the mean clinic waiting time decreased from 72.5 min at preintervention to 19.5 and 21 min at the two postintervention quarters, respectively. Moreover, patient satisfaction improved from 75% at the preintervention to 100% and 96.7% at the two postintervention quarters. Conclusions: Redesigning the process of an electronic appointment system using lean thinking considerably decreases patients’ waiting time, improves patient satisfaction, improves resource utilization, allows proper scheduling based on patient visit types, eliminates unnecessary waste processes, and reallocates health-care providers’ time toward direct, individualized patient care.