Abstract

Effectiveness of educational interventions in improving nurses knowledge and attitudes to pain management: A systematic review

Author(s): Mohammed Al Hinai

Gaps in nurses’ knowledge of, and attitude towards pain have been a cause for concern as it has an adverse impact on patient care and wellbeing. In response, there has been an array of published research examining the affects of educational programmes on nurses’ knowledge of, and attitude towards pain management, in different clinical settings around the world. However, there is a lack of current and critical review and synthesis of the results and conclusions of these empirical studies to inform evidencebased practice in healthcare. EMBASE, CINAHL, and MEDLINE were searched from their inception to July 2017 for studies that investigated the effectiveness of the educational intervention in improving nurses’ knowledge of, and attitude towards pain management. These studies were critically appraised using the JBI Checklist for Randomised Controlled Trials (RCT) and the JBI Checklist for Quasi- Experimental Studies. Out of the 562 papers identified only 15 met the inclusion criteria and of sufficient quality to be included in the review. 3 of the studies included were RCTs, while the remaining 12 were quasi-experimental studies. The result of the data synthesis showed that there is strong evidence to support the claim that educational intervention had a positive impact on nurses’ knowledge of, and attitude towards pain management. 12 out of the 15 included studies reported that nurses’ knowledge of, and attitude towards pain management significantly increased (at p<0.001 or p<0.05 significance)