title: Nurses' and Nursing Students' Knowledge and Attitudes regarding Pediatric Pain.
abstract: Nursing staff spend more time with patients with pain than any other health staff member. For this reason, the nurse must possess the basic knowledge to identify the presence of pain in patients, to measure its intensity and make the steps necessary for treatment. Therefore, a prospective, descriptive, analytical, and cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the knowledge and attitudes regarding pediatric pain in two different populations. The questionnaire, Pediatric Nurses Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (PKNAS), was applied to 111 hospital pediatric nurses and 300 university nursing students. The final scores for pediatric nurses and nursing students were 40.1 ± 7.9 and 40.3 ± 7.5, respectively. None of the sociodemographic variables predicted the scores obtained by the participants (P > 0.05). There was a high correlation between the PKNAS scores of pediatric nurses and nursing students (r = 0.86, P < 0.001). It was observed that the degree of knowledge about pain and its treatment was very low in both groups. Due to this deficiency, pain in children remains inadequately managed, which leads to suffering in this population. It is necessary to increase the continued training in this subject in both areas.
authors.affiliation: Área Académica de Medicina del Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, 42090 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico ; Universidad del Futbol y Ciencias del Deporte, 42162 San Agustín Tlaxiaca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Mario I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Ortiz
authors.affiliation: Área Académica de Medicina del Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, 42090 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Héctor A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Ponce-Monter
authors.affiliation: Área Académica de Medicina del Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, 42090 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Eduardo
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rangel-Flores
authors.affiliation: Hospital del Niño DIF Hidalgo, 42083 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Blanca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Castro-Gamez
authors.affiliation: Área Académica de Medicina del Instituto de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo, 42090 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Luis C
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Romero-Quezada
authors.affiliation: Escuela Americana de Pachuca, 42092 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Jessica P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: O'Brien
authors.affiliation: Hospital del Niño DIF Hidalgo, 42083 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Georgina
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Romo-Hernández
authors.affiliation: Hospital del Niño DIF Hidalgo, 42083 Pachuca, HGO, Mexico.
authors.forename: Marco A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Escamilla-Acosta