To Assess Knowledge and Attitude Regarding Pain Management Among Nursing Students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Background: Pain management is highly essential since the unmanaged pain has severe side effects on patients such as hopelessness, impeding their response to treatment, and reducing their quality of life. Among the major barriers reported towards implementing effective pain management for nursing students was the knowledge and attitude toward pain management. Objective: This study aims to assess knowledge and attitude of nursing student regarding pain management. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study design was utilized at a private nursing institute from July to November 2024 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Simple random sampling technique was utilized to recruit 44 nursing students.  Result: Knowledge and attitude regarding pain management of (n=44) participants was assessed, where 93.1% (n=41) was male and 6.9% (n=3) was female students. Most of the students 56.8% (n=25) show good knowledge, 36.3% (n=16) show fair knowledge and 6.8% (n=3) show poor level of knowledge. Approximately, 63.6% (n=28) students show good attitude toward pain management, some students 27.2% (n=12) had fair attitude toward pain management and only 9.09% (n=4) students had poor attitude regarding pain management. Conclusion: Most nursing students have good knowledge and a positive attitude towards pain management. While 56.8% of participants demonstrated good knowledge, 63.6% showed a positive attitude. A smaller portion of students had only fair or poor levels in both knowledge and attitude, which presents areas for improvement.