Nurse's knowledge, attitude and practices regarding pain assessment among patients with cancer at Uganda Cancer Institute

Patients with cancer often experience mild to severe pain. Therefore, effective pain assessment and management is paramount to this patient sub-population. This study sought to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices associated with pain assessment among nurses at Uganda Cancer Institute (UCI), Mulago National Referral Hospital, Kampala, Uganda.
This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at UCI among 67 randomly selected nurses. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS software.
The mean age of the respondents was 26 years with the standard deviation (SD) of 2.46. The average knowledge scale score was 12 (range: 0-16), indicating good knowledge of pain assessment. Nurses’ average attitude scale score was 9 out of a total score of 12, indicating a positive attitude towards pain assessment. Practices included use of standardized pain assessment tools (61.2%), patient observation (41.8%), documentation (94.0%), and administration of analgesics (56.7%). Most common assessment tool used was the verbal rating scale (32.8%). Pain assessment findings were rarely discussed (52.2%) during nurses’ reports.
Nurses’ knowledge, attitude, and practices of pain assessment and intervention are essential components in promoting patient comfort; continuous professional development and research in this area is needed.