Knowledge, attitude, and practice of pain assessment and management in children among pediatric and pediatric surgical residents in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital

Abstract

Abstract
Background: Pain is widely prevalent regardless settings and is thought to be one of the main reasons why patients seek medical care. Pain is considered as the “fifth vital sign” and there is a need for it to be assessed and recorded regularly, as with other vital signs. Barriers to appropriate pain management include health worker's insufficient knowledge on pain assessment tools and the general attitude towards patient's pain management.
Objective: To assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of childhood pain assessment and the management among pediatrics and pediatric surgical residents in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital.
Methodology: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practice of pediatric and pediatric surgical residents in TASH based on pediatric pain assessment and management. The data was collected by a standardized pretested questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS computer software version 25.
Results: The mean total score of the residents was 14.56 (SD=3.16) from a total of 27 questions consisting of 15 T/F and 12 MCQ questions. The maximum and minimum scores were 25 and 7 respectively. Most of the study groups (86.2%) were not using pain assessment tools. Final-year residents had 5.5(95% CI=1.38-21.85) more than "average and above" scores than the other year residents.
Conclusion and recommendation: Knowledge deficit, poor attitude, and poor practice on pediatric pain assessment and management were discovered from this study. The findings of the present study emphasize the need to improve the Knowledge, attitude, and practices of residents on assessment and management of pain in children. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 2021; 35(3):177-182]
Keywords: Pain, knowledge, attitude, pediatrics