Background: Pain is a universal experience. It has well established that many people will suffer from pain at the end of life, and untreated pain contributes to reduction in the quality of life. Nurses play a crucial role in pain management; student nurses are the face of future nursing and must be highly knowledgeable to ensure their practices in the assessment and management of pain.
Objectives: To assess the knowledge regarding pain management among nursing students of Swatantra Senani Uttamraoji Patil Nursing College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra.
Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out from January to April 2016 among 85 nursing students of Swatantra Senani Uttamraoji Patil Nursing College, Aurangabad, Maharashtra, while their clinical posting period at Noor Hospital of Indian Institute of Medical Science & Research Medical College, Badnapur, Jalna, Maharashtra. A pre-designed questionnaire which assessed knowledge regarding pain management was the tool of data collection. Results were analyzed in the form of frequency, percentage, and mean whenever appropriate.
Results: Out of 85 respondents, majority 40 (47.05%) were in the age group of 20 years, 58 (68.24%) were females, 75 (88.24%) were unmarried, 40 (47.05%) were in second year, and 72 (84.70%) were from rural area. Majority of them (61.18%) had average knowledge and only 17.65% had good knowledge regarding pain management. There was significant association between demographic variables like age (p = 0.0204), education (p = 0.0173), and marital status (p = 0.0432) with knowledge scores.
Conclusion: The level of knowledge regarding pain management among nursing students was average. Considering the important role of nursing in pain management, there is need of close clinical supervision, additional training, and allotment of more hours to pain management unit in nursing curriculum.
Key words: Knowledge, pain management, nursing students
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