CONTINUING PAIN EDUCATION IN NURSING - A LITERATURE-REVIEW

Twelve studies on the effects of pain programmes for nurses were revie wed. Most of the programmes focused on aspects of pain, pain medicatio n or pain assessment. Only two programmes (Ferrell et al., 1993, J. Pa in Symptom Management, Vol. 8, No. 8, pp. 549-556; Sofaer, 1983, Nurs. Times, Vol. 79, No, 47, pp. 38-42; 1984, Ph.D. Thesis, University of Edinburgh) also paid attention to non-pharmacological nursing interven tions. Randomized control groups, established measurement instruments, testing statistics, and long-term follow-up measurements, were not of ten used in the effect evaluation of the programmes. Effects reported on both nurses and patients were for the most part positive. Given the small number of studies and their methodological limitations, further research into the effectiveness of continuing pain education in nursi ng is indicated. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.