Journal de la douleur et du soulagement

Abstrait

Knowledge And Attitude Towards Pain Management Among Medical And Paramedical Students Of An Ethiopian University

Eyob T, Mulatu A and Abrha H

Background: Poor attitude and lack of knowledge about pain has long been demonstrated to encumber the manner in which professionals and their patients respond to the varied dimensions of pain management.

Objective: The aim of the current study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management of the 2013 final year students of Medical and paramedical students of College of Public Health and Medical Sciences(CPHMS) of Jimma University, South-west Ethiopia.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was employed among final year undergraduate students using a validated 23-item consisting four likert scales. Results were depicted using narrations, means, percentages, figure and tables. Comparisons among groups were performed through one way analysis of variance, t-test and Pearson correlation. Item-total correlation and Cronbach’s alpha were computed using SPSS for Windows version 20. P-value below 5% level of significance was used to identify the statistical significance of factors for knowledge and attitude about pain management.

Results: A total of 422 graduate classes of the college’s student have completed a 23-item questionnaire evaluating knowledge and attitude about pain management. The reliability (Cronbach’s α) of the tool was 0.89. The overall percentage of correct answers was 52.3%.The mean percentage of correct answers for non-pharmacologic pain management, assessment of and attention paid to pain, general principle of pain management, opiods, and children’s pain management items were 80.3, 62.4, 52.1, 40.3, and 31.5 respectively. Only 4.2 % of the students scored above the cutoff point (70%) for good knowledge regarding pain management. Nevertheless, though paradoxical, 73 % of the participants responded that they have adequately learnt about pain management in their academic carriers. Pharmacy students had a mean score of correct answer of 55.7% followed by Medicine 54.7%, Anesthesia 51.8%, Health Officer (HO) 50.9%, Dentistry 50.6%, and Nursing 49.9%.There was a statistically significant difference in the number of correct answers among the departments (ANOVA, P = 0.004). The only differences were between Pharmacy vs. Nursing or HO officer students (p=0.02).

Conclusion: Unacceptable level of knowledge deficits and poor attitudes were distinguished in this study which augments the universal concern of inadequate knowledge and attitudes regarding pain management. Thus, the situation demands various educational and quality improvement initiatives in pain management that could enhance the student’s knowledge in the area of pain management and ultimately improve practices for bettering patients’ quality of life.