A Cross-Sectional Study on Current Perioperative Pain Management and Nurses' Pain Management Self-Efficacy in China's Interventional Department.

OBJECTIVE

To critically evaluate the present status of perioperative pain management among nurses in interventional departments as well as to delineate the factors influencing the self-efficacy of pain management to provide a foundation for enhancing perioperative pain management practices.

METHODS

This was a descriptive cross-sectional study on 941 nurses from 24 Chinese provinces and municipalities. A questionnaire was conducted to examine the current pain management practices. Independent sample -test and analysis of variance were used for inter-group comparison. Multiple linear regression analysis was done to analyze the influencing factors of pain management self-efficacy.

RESULTS

About 76.5% of the nurses in the interventional departments had undergone pain management training; however, more than one-third (37.6%) had not in the past two years. Merely 4.9% of nurses expressed confidence that their knowledge in pain management was sufficient to meet the demands the clinical practice. The foremost three areas of pain management information desired by the nurses in the intervention department were pain psychology (79.6%), pharmacological pain treatment (78.1%), and non-pharmacological pain interventions (77.4%). A majority (57.6%) of the nurses failed to assess the patients' comprehension and perspectives of analgesia, elements contributing to pain exacerbation or alleviation, and the outcomes of analgesic measures. The cumulative score for the pain self-efficacy questionnaire among nurses in the intervention department was 63.95±21.83. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that variables such as the acquisition of pain knowledge, the frequency of pain training in the past two years, the ratio of evaluation tools employed for assessment, the prevalent utilization of multi-dimensional evaluation instruments, and professional course studies in academia were determinants influencing pain management self-efficacy.

CONCLUSION

Perioperative pain management by interventional department nurses in China is unstandardized and lacks continuous education. Nursing administrators should create targeted training to boost pain assessment, prevention and treatment abilities.