The effect of education about pain management on the knowledge and attitudes of nurses

Effective pain management continues to be an issue across many healthcare settings. This project was conducted to examine nurses' knowledge and attitudes toward pain management through the use of the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain. The project involved running the survey as a pretest and posttest evaluation to measure the effect of specific modes of education. The data were collected at a single acute care hospital in southern California and involved registered nurses (RNs) throughout inpatient units.;A total of 482 RNs completed both the pre- and posttests out of a possible 799 (60%). Educational modes used to educate the RNs included small group sessions discussing case scenarios and online self-learning modules. The overall findings showed a statistically significant improvement in scores when comparing the pretest results (72%) to the posttest results (78%), thus proving that various modalities of education can enhance nurses' knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management.