ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS PEDIATRIC PAIN MANAGEMENT AMONG HEALTH PROFESSIONALS WORKING IN SAINT PAUL HOSPITAL MILLENNIUM MEDICAL COLLEGE.

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Pain is an important public health problem due to both its frequency and impact on daily life. Despite increased awareness and improvements in pediatric pain assessment and management, findings show that the magnitude of poor management of pain in hospitalized children remains high. Different studies report a gap of knowledge among physicians and nurses regarding pediatric pain assessment and management including lack of awareness of pain scales in children and misconception about opioids use. Though some professionals have better understanding of pain the practicality is questionable. Therefore; this study aimed to assess the attitude, knowledge and practice towards pediatric pain management among health professionals working in Saint Paul hospital millennium medical college. Methods: institution based cross sectional study among randomly selected 374 health professionals working in Saint Paul hospital was conducted. Pre validated self-administered digital questionnaire was employed to collect the data. All the collected data were entered into the statistical package for social science version 26.0 and analyzed. To identify factors associated with good practice of health professional, binary logistic regression was employed. The adjusted odds ratios, accompanied by a 95% confidence interval, were computed to interpret the results effectively. A p-value of less than 0.05 was deemed statistically significant for this study. Results: The study found a favorable attitude of 81.6%, a good knowledge of 56.1% and a good practice of 55.9% among health professionals participated in the study. The odds of good practice were found to be 2.5 times higher among professional with two or more years of work experience (AOR = 2.5; 95% CI: 1.52, 4.05). The likelihood of good practice among professionals with specific training on pediatrics pain assessment was 4.7 times higher than their counterparts (AOR= 4.7; 95% CI: 1.27, 17.33). Conclusion: The attitude, knowledge and practice of health professionals towards pediatric pain management revealed by this study are roughly comparable with the reports of other studies. conducted in the country. However, there are significant differences compared to findings of studies from other countries. Adopting a clear guideline and providing specific training about pediatrics pain assessment could improve the knowledge and practice of pediatric pain. management. Key words: pediatrics pain, attitude, knowledge, practice, Saint Paul Hospital.