Nurses' knowledge related to pain assessment for critically ill patients at a public sector hospital in Johanesburg.

Abstract

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Nursing Johannesburg, 2014Discrepancies exist between how pain is assessed in ICU patients able and unable to self report. There are pain assessment scales and guidelines that have been developed over the years for pain assessment. However, little is known regarding ICU nurses’ knowledge and current practices in the provision of pain management in the critically ill. The purpose of this study was to investigate intensive care nurses’ knowledge and practices related to pain assessment for critically ill patients. A quantitative non-experimental, descriptive cross-sectional design was used to achieve the objectives. ICU nurse participants (n=79) were drawn from the five (5) adult ICUs in a public tertiary hospital. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire by Rose et al. 2011. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data