Background: Adequate children's pain management is universally considered an ethical obligation. In evaluating and treating children's pain, nurses invest more time and take a leading role. This study aims to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of nurses towards the treatment of pediatric pain.
Materials and methods: A total of 292 nurses working at four South Gondar Zone hospitals of Ethiopia was surveyed. To gather information from study participants, the Pediatric Nurses' -Knowledge and Attitudes- Survey Regarding Pain (PNKAS) was employed. Frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation of the data were used for descriptive analysis, while Pearson correlation, one-way between-groups analysis of variance, and independent-samples t-test were used for inferential analysis.
Results: A large percentage of nurses (74.7%) lacked adequate knowledge and attitudes (PNKAS score <50%) for pediatric pain treatment. The mean ± SD accurate response score of 43.1% ± 8.6% was achieved by nurses. An increase in pediatrics nursing experience was significantly correlated with nurses' PNKAS score (p < 0.001). The mean PNKAS scores of nurses who had official pain management training differed in a statistically significant way as compared to its counterpart (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Nurses who are working South Gondar Zone of Ethiopia have insufficient knowledge and attitudes towards treatment of pediatric pain. Therefore, pediatric pain treatment in-service training is urgently needed.
Keywords: attitude; children; knowledge; nurses; pain management.
© 2023 Fenta, Kibret, Hunie, Tamire, Eshetie, Seid, Fentie, Amaha, Desse, Dejen, Essa and Teshome.