Knowledge, Practice and Factors Associated with Pain Management for Adult Critical Ill Patients Among Nurses Working in Federal Hospitals of Addis Ababa Ethiopia 2020

Background: Effective pain management requires precise knowledge and competent skills in practice. Nurses should have a solid foundation of pain knowledge and develop good practice pain management. Little is documented towards nurse’s knowledge and practice of pain management among critical ill patients in the study area. Objective: To examine the level of knowledge, practice & associated factors of nurses towards critically ill patients pain management at federal hospitals, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia September to October 2020. Method: A cross-sectional study design was conducted among nurses, who work at federal hospitals of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from September 15 to October 15, 2020. All intensive care unit nurses was participated in the study. Data was collected by using self-administered structured questionnaire and entered into Epi info version 7 and imported to SPSS version 23.0 software for analysis. Associations was analyzed by using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression model. The findings were expressed with 95% CI and odd ratio and P-value<0.05. Result: Knowledge of nurses towards pain management in the study area is 64.9%. Among many factors contributed to the nurses’ pain management knowledge in the Multivariate logistic regression: work load (AOR, 8.8, CI95%, 1.45-53.39), training related to ICU (AOR, 10.8, CI95%, 1.07-109.42), reading of guidelines (AOR, 10.11, CI95%, 1.36-75.22), educational status (AOR, 16.38, CI95%, 1.02-261.9), and practice of nurse towards pain management (AOR, 6.17, CI95%; 1.38-27.56) were associated with knowledge of pain management. Nurses’ practice of pain management in the study area is 56.5%. Similarly having a training related to intensive care unit (AOR, 19.95, CI95%, 3.03-130.9), and knowledge of nurse towards pain management (AOR, 5.30, CI95%; 1.3-21.68) were significantly associated with practice of nurses on pain management. Conclusion and recommendation: The overall nurses’ pain management knowledge in federal hospitals of Addis Ababa relative to Mekelle hospitals is good. Taking training, reading guidelines and level of education of nurses were significant predictors of nurse’s knowledge. Receiving a training related to intensive care unit and having adequate knowledge of pain management were also associated with practice of pain management. Therefore, the need to give trainings and prepare guideline regarding pain assessment and management might escalate to address pain management among nurses.