title: Staff nurses' perceptions of barriers to effective pain management.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate staff nurses' perceptions of barriers to pain management including lack of educational preparation; inadequacy of clinical practice skills; and certain legal/political, financial, and ethical problems. Staff nurses rated the adequacy of their knowledge and skills in each of these areas as well as how important they believed each area was on a four-point Likert scale (1 = very inadequate or very unimportant to 4 = very adequate or very important). Nurses were also asked to list the most important pain management problems in their institutions. A random sample of 24 hospitals stratified on the basis of size was drawn from four states in the United States. Of 125 nurses contacted, 108 (86%) responded to the questionnaire. Nurses rated their educational preparation (mean, 2.6; SD, 0.05) and knowledge of legal/political issues (mean, 2.3; SD, 0.05) midway between inadequate and adequate. Practice was rated as adequate (mean 3.1; SD, 0.36), and financial issues were rated as inadequate (mean, 1.9; SD, 0.06). Knowledge of ethical issues was adequate (mean, 3.1; SD, 0.03). Implications of these ratings based on the literature in pain management are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Buffalo, New York 14215, USA.
authors.forename: K G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pasero
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Olsson
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital; D059408:Pain Management; D011897:Random Allocation; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires