The Knowledge of Nurses Working in Pediatric Wards of Assessment and Treatment of Pain in Children

Introduction. Children's pain is often undiagnosed and wrongly treated. The skill of diagnostics and counteraction of long-lasting pains is an extremely important element in the work of nursing staff. The knowledge of rules of estimation and treatment of the pain in children is a basis of individualized care-giving for patient. The purpose of the research is to estimate the knowledge of the nurses working in pediatric wards in the fields of diagnostics, estimation and treatments of pain in children. Material and methods. Evaluation based on questionnaires filled out by 68 nurses working in neonatal, pediatric and pediatric surgery wards was conducted. Results. Research shows that 79% of respondents - nurses, working in pediatric wards know the estimation scales of pain in children, and 59% of persons use the evaluation tools of pain experiences in their professional job. The results show that nurses possess a good knowledge about non pharmacological treatment of pain, which was on a better level than their knowledge about pharmacological treatment. 82% of respondents consider non pharmacological methods of treatment to be effective. 74% of respondents confirm the use of pharmacological and non pharmacological methods of pain alleviation in their professional job. 42% of nurses estimate their knowledge about treatment of pain as good. Conclusions: • Knowledge of nurses working in pediatric wards concerning estimation of pain experiences in children is not sufficient. • The level of nurses' knowledge concerning non pharmacological pain alleviation methods is average, but at the same time higher than knowledge concerning pharmacological pain alleviation methods. • Main factors determining pediatric nurses' knowledge about pain treatments in children are: their education, their practice in-service and their participation in additional trainings for pain alleviation.