Effects of a continuing education program on nurses' pain assessment practices.
Surgical nurses from five Dutch general hospitals participated in a continuing education program on pain assessment and management. A pretest-posttest controlled intervention study revealed that the program led to an increase in the quality of activities relevant to taking pain histories. Although this increase in quality was most apparent 1 month after the program, it was still observable 6 months after the program. There were, however, no effects on the number of activities relevant to taking pain histories, or on the number of nurses who used direct questioning as a method to determine pain. There may be several explanations for these results, including nurses' limited openness to new approaches, a lack of support from physicians and nurse superiors, and that program items were not translated into ward policy.
Francke
A L
AL
Helen Dowling Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Luiken
J B
JB
de Schepper
A M
AM
Abu-Saad
H H
HH
Grypdonck
M
M
D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care