Evaluating the effectiveness of a hospital's pain management program

Nationally, the focus on facilities providing effective pain management has increased, yet no funds have been allocated to pain management programs. T he article describes a 5-year study whose purpose was to evaluate the effec t on nurses' attitudes and behavior of the institution of a multifaceted, l ow-cost hospital pain management program. The program utilized various inst ructional methods and implementation of policies, procedures, and documenta tion protocols. Nurses were surveyed before and after the pain management p rogram using the 39-item Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey. Results de monstrated a statistically significant increase between pretest and posttes t scores.