STAFF NURSES PERCEPTIONS OF BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE PAIN MANAGEMENT

The purpose of this study was to investigate staff nurses' perceptions of barriers to pain management including lack of educational preparat ion; inadequacy of clinical practice skills; and certain legal/politic al, financial, and ethical problems. Staff nurses rated the adequacy o f their knowledge and skills of these areas as well as how important t hey believed each area was on a four-point Likert scale (1 very inadeq uate or very unimportant to 4 very adequate or very important). Nurses were also asked to list the most important pain management problems i n their institutions. A random sample of 24 hospitals stratified on th e basis of size was drawn from four states in the United States. Of 12 5 nurses contacted, 108 (86%) responded to the questionnaire. Nurses r ated their educational preparation (mean, 2.6; SD, 0.05) and knowledge of legal/political issues (mean, 2.3; SD, 0.05) midway between inadeq uate and adequate. Practice was rated as adequate (mean 3.1; SD, 0.36) , and financial issues were rated as inadequate (mean, 1.9; SD, 0.06). Knowledge of ethical issues was adequate (mean, 3.1; SD, 0.03). Impli cations of these ratings based on the literature in pain management ar e discussed.