Evaluating Knowledge, Practices, and Barriers of Paediatric Pain Management among Nurses in a Tertiary Health Facility in the Northern Region of Ghana: A Descriptive Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Background. Pain is a major source of distress for children on admission, parents, and clinician. Hospitalized children continuously experience unrelieved pain; hence, the provision of effective pain management is an integral and important part of the nurse’s role. Adequate knowledge and positive practices of nurses regarding pain management among children are key if optimal pain management is to be achieved among paediatric cases. However, there is a paucity of published data on paediatric management among nurses in the northern part of Ghana. Aim. The current study, therefore, evaluated nurse’s knowledge and practices and identified the barriers to paediatric pain management in the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Ghana. Methodology. This was a descriptive cross-sectional facility-based study that employed a quantitative approach to data collection. A total of 180 nurses were selected conveniently from 10 selected wards of the hospital for the study. Data were collected using a questionnaire. The data were subsequently analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 23.0. Logistic regression analysis was done to determine the association between the dependent and independent variables of interest. Results. The findings revealed that the majority (61.1%) of all the nurses had an overall good knowledge of paediatric pain management while 57.8% demonstrated good practices of pain management. From the study, the most reported barriers to paediatric pain management by the nurses were insufficient knowledge in pain management (76.1%), inadequate paediatric pain assessment tools (73.9%), and inadequate staffing (72.2%). In further analysis, critical care nurses were 5.87 times more likely to engage in good practices of paediatric pain management than paediatric nurses (OR = 5.87 (95% CI : 1.07–32.00), p = 0.041 ). Conclusion. The majority (61.1%) of all the respondents showed good knowledge of pain management and 57.8% demonstrated good pain management practices. Despite the high knowledge and practice, factors such as insufficient knowledge in pain management (76.1%), inadequate paediatric pain assessment tools (73.9%), and inadequate nurse staffing (72.2%) affect effective pain management. Paediatric pain management should be treated as a priority, and hence more efforts should be put in place to curtail the barriers that hinder its practice.

Knowledge, Practice, and factors associated with neonatal pain management among nurses working at West Oromia Public Hospitals, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

“…This nding is signi cantly higher than the study conducted in Rwanda (25.8%), Malaysia (40.5%), and Iran (45.5%) which shows adequate knowledge of neonatal pain management among nurses (11,22) . However, this nding was in line with the study conducted in Ghana 61.1%, University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital (67.9%), and Addis Ababa city public hospital 68.7% on pediatric and neonatal pain management respectively (9,18,23).…”

“…This nding was in line with the study in Rwanda (15.2%) (11 ). Though it is lower than the study in Malaysia, Ghana, and Addis Ababa public hospitals in which 41.67%, 42.2%, and 32.2% of them had good practice in neonatal pain management respectively (7,9,18).…”

“…From evidences, around 65.6% of the nurses' do not know the name of the pain assessment scale which may be related to a lack of training of neonatal pain assessment and management (8) . This was supported by the study in which nurses had a low level of knowledge and poor practice in managing the pain of hospitalized children (9) . Similarly neonatal nurses do not use any pain assessment tools and majority of them had inadequate knowledge and poor practice towards neonatal pain management (7,(10)(11)(12).…”

Nurses’ Knowledge, Practice, And Associated Factors Towards Postoperative Pediatric Pain Management in Selected Public Hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2022. Cross-Sectional Study

“…This result was similar to studies from Ghana (41%) and India (45%)(36, 37) for level of knowledge. And the result from the study was higher than studies from Addis Ababa and Turkey (21,26) while it is lower than study done in Ghana (61.1%) (31).For that of practice it was found to be lower than study from Ghana(31), while it is higher than study from Ethiopia(26).And for those discrepancies, study design, study setting, sample size and outcome rating can play undeniable role. In this study, the outcome variable was rated as Good or…”

Assessment of factors influencing nurse's knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding pain management of hospitalized children

“…As well as, a descriptive qualitative study that conducted by (12) , and concluded that ineffective communication with children was common factor for pain assessment and management. furthermore (13) who carried out a descriptive cross-sectional facility-based study on 180 nurses , their findings showed that child's uncooperativeness taking medication was the most factor that effect on pediatric pain management.…”