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Cancer Pain And Its Management: Knowledge Of Nurses At Selected Health Institutions, Offering Cancer Treatment In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2013

Nega R, Tachbele E and Kassa GM*

Background: Around a third of patients with cancer report moderate to severe pain and with the development of metastases, the incidence of pain increases to 40% to 60% of patients, and in far advanced disease, 60% to 90% of patients report significant pain. Majority of health professionals found in Ethiopia do not know how to holistically assess and control pain and only insignificant numbers are familiar with the World Health Organization (WHO) pain management protocol. Hence, this study is conducted to assess knowledge of nurses regarding cancer pain management at selected health institutions, offering cancer treatment in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2013.

Methods: Cross-sectional study with supplement of qualitative study design was carried out among 82 nurses in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (NKARSP) questionnaire for selfadministered and three focus group discussions were used to collect data. Epi info version 3.5.4 and SPSS version 20 statistical software’s were used for data entry and analysis respectively. Means and standard deviations were determined for quantitative data and frequency determined for categorical variables. Nonparametric statistics-Mann- Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis test were used for comparison between multiple means. A P-value less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

Results: A deficit in knowledge to cancer pain management was prominent. Only 35.4% of the respondents had good knowledge on cancer pain management. The mean score for correctly answered items was 12.6 (37.1%). A statistical significance was observed in nurse’s work experience with pain knowledge at P<0.05. However, no statistical significance was observed for other socio demographic variables.

Conclusion: Inadequate knowledge regarding cancer pain management was observed. Inadequate education, lack of both pre service and in service trainings were major barriers for acceptable knowledge on cancer pain management. Both theoretical and practical education programs on the provision of cancer pain management should be included for nurses to the existing nursing curriculum.