Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitudes Toward Pain in the Emergency Department

IntroductionThe purpose of this study was to investigate emergency nurses’ knowledge and attitudes about pain.MethodsA descriptive design was used for this study. A validated tool, the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (KASRP), was administered to nurses working in 5 U.S. emergency departments. Demographic data also were collected from each participant.ResultsNinety-one emergency nurses completed the survey. The mean total KASRP score was 76%. No significant differences were found in mean total scores by age, education level, years of nursing experience, or years of ED experience. Eight questions were answered incorrectly by more than 50% of participants. Five of these questions were related to opioid pharmacology and dosage, 2 concerned understanding of addiction and dependence, and one was linked to nurse assessment and patient report of pain level. Analysis of these 8 questions revealed that higher education levels had a weak positive association with correct answers.DiscussionParticipants taking the survey scored comparably or better than participants in other reported studies using the KASRP. Years of nursing experience was not correlated with correct responses. Findings from this study underscore the Institute of Medicine's Pain in America recommendation to increase pain management education for all providers.