Knowledge, attitudes and perceived barriers to post-operative pain management: Institution based cross sectional study

Abstract

Post-operative pain is a common problem after surgical procedure. Undertreated and uncontrolled post-operative pain reduce physical and social performance, impaired quality of life and patient dissatisfaction, delayed discharge, increased use of health care resources and high cost on their hospital stay. Even if the problem is vast, researches on the area lack adequate data. This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitude and perceived barriers to post-operative pain management among anesthetists in Addis Ababa Governmental Hospitals, Ethiopia 2015. An institution based crosssectional study was conducted. A survey method was undertaken to include a total of 150 anesthetists working in 11 government hospitals found in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Pretested structured selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data were entered and analyzed through SPSS version 20. Tables, graphs and frequencies were used to report the descriptive result. In total, 102 (68%) participants participated in the research. The mean score of correctly answered questions by the participants was 4.9 SD ±2.3, out of 12 items ranging from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of 11. Inadequate post-operative pain assessment, absence of pain management guideline and least priority for post-operative pain control are the major mentioned barriers by the participants. Anesthetist's pain management knowledge and attitude level was found to be low. Strengthening educational strategy for surgical pain management and working on standard guidelines plays major role in alleviating the problem.

Child and adolescent psychiatry staff’s knowledge on pain management

“…Overall, our study showed that the employees possess an overall satisfactory level of knowledge. The range of values and the mean value of 66% of correct answers are comparable to or even higher than the results of similar examinations with the staff of paediatric clinics (De Freitas et al, 2014; Von Lützau et al, 2011; Notejane et al, 2019; Salanterä et al, 1999) and other medical disciplines (Setegn et al, 2009; Visentin et al, 2001). This is surprising, since pain is not a major topic of the child psychiatry staff education.…”

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of health professionals towards postoperative pain management at a referral hospital in Ethiopia

“…Even if 73% participants have received training related to POP assessment and treatment only 14% of them assess POP regularly and 87% our study participants didn't have a pain guideline or standard in their organization. Yosef et al has found lack of pain assessment tool, lack of management protocol, guideline and poor documentation as a barrier for post-operative pain management [ 37 ]. This idea also supported by the study in Hong Kong which showed having a postoperative pain management program designed in an evidence-based procedure in specific manner can reduce postoperative pain and improve patient satisfaction [ 38 ].…”