title: Effects of a continuing education program on nurses' pain assessment practices.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Helen Dowling Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: A L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Francke
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Luiken
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: de Schepper
authors.forename: H H
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Abu-Saad
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grypdonck
mesh_terms: D004509:Education, Nursing, Continuing; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D059408:Pain Management; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care