Background: Pain can adversely affect every aspect of a patient's daily activity, and consequently, it has a great influence on the quality of life. Studies have shown that health care professionals have little knowledge of and inadequate attitudes toward the assessment of pain and its treatment with analgesics.
Objectives: This cross-sectional study was designed to evaluate the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of health care professionals regarding chronic pain management. It was carried out in six different educational hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in Shiraz, Iran.
Patients and methods: Participants were given a questionnaire containing 46 questions and demographic characteristics to fill out independently. In total, 213 health care professionals (114 nurses and 99 medical residents) volunteered to take part in this study. In order to ease further analysis, the questions were grouped into three categories: narcotic drugs, non-narcotic drugs, and non-drug-related questions.
Results: The mean correct response rate was 43.13% ± 11.10. Medical residents scored 51.23% ± 9.02% and nurses 36.10% ± 7.31% (P < 0.001). There was no statistically significant relation between field of specialty and the mean scores of medical residents. Narcotic drug questions received the lowest (39.02%) and non-narcotic drug questions received the highest (57.32%) percentages of correct responses. Only 9.3% of participants believed that they had received adequate education about pain and its management.
Conclusions: The findings of this study support concern about inadequate knowledge, attitudes, and practice regarding chronic pain management. We believe that further education and practical training will be needed for adequate pain management.
Keywords: Attitude; Knowledge; Pain Management; Practice.