Knowledge, attitude and performance of nurses regarding pain assessment and measurement, Bandar Abbas, Iran

Introduction: Infants can not express their pain, therefore, their pain should be evaluated by valid and reliable tools. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and performance of nurses working in neonatal units on pain assessment and measurement in neonates. Methods: This descriptive and analytic study performed during March-August 2011 in neonatal units and NICU in Bandar Abbas educational hospitals. The number of nurses and nurse-assistances working in neonatal units was 50, where 40 nurses completed the questionnaire. Data collecting tool was a structured questionnaire containing four parts: demographic data and special questions concerning knowledge, attitude and practice. The data was analyzed by using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: Mean of knowledge score for participants was 10.27 out of 26. Mean score of attitude was 54.22 out of 60 and mean scores of neonates' pain assessment practice was 4.22 out of 10. Nurses had very weak practice regarding pain assessment and measurement and 100% of them did not use any tool for measuring neonate's pain. There was a significant relationship between nurses' knowledge score and level of education and cases with more education had more knowledge. There was no significant relationship between nurse's knowledge scores and marital status as well as work experience. Conclusion: Knowledge of nurses regarding neonate pain assessment and measurement is very low and need continuous and periodic educations regarding measurement procedure.