Knowledge and attitudes toward pediatric pain management among nursing interns from a selected university in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: a descriptive cross-sectional quantitative study

Abstract

Introduction Pediatric pain is often not addressed properly in the literature, which suggests a research gap in pediatric health-care providers’ knowledge and attitudes toward the treatment of pain experienced by children in various health-care settings. To improve future practice in this area, nursing interns should be well versed in pediatric pain assessment and management to improve pediatric pain management practices in collaboration with other health-care professionals. Purpose This study aimed to assess the levels of knowledge and attitudes toward pediatric pain management among nursing interns at a specific academic institution. Methods This descriptive cross-sectional quantitative study employed an online questionnaire to collect data from 119 female nursing interns in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In addition to collecting the participants’ demographic profiles, the questionnaire gathered data using the Pediatric Nurses’ Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain instrument. Descriptive and inferential statistics were calculated using SPSS for Windows (v. 21.0). Results The nursing interns’ overall knowledge and attitudes toward pediatric pain management were found to be poor, with a mean score of 36.59% (standard deviation, 13.2). Conclusion Additional education and clinical training for nursing interns is essential to enhance their knowledge and attitudes toward pediatric pain management.

Keywords

• Attitudes
• Knowledge
• Nursing interns
• Nursing college
• Pediatric pain management