KNOWLEDGE REGARDING PAIN MANAGEMENT AMONG NURSING STUDENTS OF BUTWAL SUB-METROPOLITAN CITY OF RUPANDEHI DISTRICT, NEPAL

Abstract

Background: Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Pain management is an important aspect of patient care and nurses play a significant role in the acute care setting in pain assessment, treatment and management. The study was designed to find out knowledge regarding pain management among nursing students.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 199 nursing students, select­ed by using non-probability enumerative sampling technique. A validated and pre-tested semi-structured self-administered questionnaire was used and collected data were analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics with Statistical Package for Social (SPSS) Software Version 20.0.

Results: This study revealed that 77.9% of the respondents had knowledge regarding meaning of pain. About21.1%, 34.7% and 70.9% of the respondents had knowledge regarding group of drug used for mild, moderate and severe pain respectively. And about 66.3%, 30.2%, 17.1%, 14.1% and 4.5% of the respondents had knowledge regarding distraction, relaxation, heat and cold applica­tion, imaginary meditation and TENS as non-pharmacological measures used for pain manage­ment respectively. The findings of the study revealed that 47.7% had low knowledgeregarding pain management.

Conclusions: Nearly half of the students had low knowledge regarding pain management. It is rec­ommended to nursing colleges to give more emphasis on assessment of pain and its management and increase practical exposure.