Nusing Students' Knowledge, Attitudes And Intention Regarding Pain And Pain Management

Objective: To translate the Pain Management Survey(PMS) into Chinese, and to assess the reliability and validity ; To examine nursing students' knowledge, attitudes and intention regarding pain and pain management; To identify the determinants of nursing students intention to administer narcotic analgesic to patients with pain.Methods : Following the psychometric procedure, thequestionnaire was translated. 456 nursing students who were training in 2 affiliated hospitals Xiangya medical school of The Central South university were recruited by random sampling to fill in the questionnaire, in which 31 students were repeated after 2 weeks, using Pain Management Survey. All data were analyzed with SPSS 13.0: The reliability and validity analyses of PMS; descriptive statistics; standard multiple regression; t test; analysis of variance.Results: 1. Cronbach's Alphas values of PMS were 0.73 for the whole questionnaire and 0.56～0.80 for 6 domains; Between the two test, values of coefficient of product-moment correlation for all dimensions and total instrument were 0.549～0.746 (P<0.05) ; values of validity of content was 0.93; correlation coefficients values between intention and other dimensions were -0.017～0.432, low to moderate correlations were found.2. The average PMS scores of each dimensions of 456 nursing students were : Direct attitude 21.13, indirect attitude 0.69, subjective norm 1.10, indirect control 4.98, direct control - 2.55, intention - 0.94. The direct control score and intention score were negative, making clear that nursing students were reluctant to administer narcotic analgesic. The best strongest predictors of intention were direct control (r=0.397, P < 0.001), the secondly were indirect attitude (r=0.185,P < 0.001) .3. There was a statistically significant difference in scores of indirect control dimension between the nursing students who with baccalaureate and who had not; there was a statistically significant difference in scores of direct attitude and direct control dimension between the nursing students who received pain management knowledge and those who had not in the nursing school ; there was a statistically significant difference in scores of indirect control dimension between the nursing students who had ever training in oncology units and those who had not.Conclusion: 1. The PMS is good in its reliability and validity. To apply widespread in our country, we need to modify PMS in direct control and intention dimension further.2. Nursing students reported knowledge deficits and negative attitude towards narcotic analgesic and their use in pain management. For example, they can't correctly recognize the pain that the patients reported and the curative effect of narcotic analgesic.3. The probability that nursing students' intention to administer narcotic analgesic was stronger when they had a high degree of direct control over the administration of narcotic analgesic. Nursing education should be reinforced to give students more confidence in their ability to manage pain.4. Nursing education in pain in the school and training experience in the oncology units influenced nursing students' knowledge and attitude toward pain management. Nursing education should pay attention to cultivate the students new concept and knowledge about pain management in the future, and should enhance consciousness and capability of nursing staff toward pain management.