Nurses' knowledge about pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain management in children

The purpose of this study was to investigate the Knowledge base and practic es of Finnish, nurses in the area of children in pain. The convenience samp le consisted of 265 nurses working on children's wards in university hospit als. Data were collected using art instrument designed for the study. The r esults showed that there remain gaps in the Knowledge base of nurses with r egard to both pharmacological and nonpharmacological pain management in chi ldren. The education and the area of expertise were significant influences on knowledge scores. Nurses used a fairly wide range of nonpharmacological pain alleviation methods but most of these were such that the nurse was in an active role and the child was passive. There is a clear need for further education. Nurses should take ct more active role in seeking new informati on and also should be encouraged to use nonpharmacological methods that let the children be active participants in their own care. J Pain Symptom Mana ge 1999;18:289-299. (C) U.S. Cancer Pain Relief Committee, 1999.