Nurse's attitudes to pain in children and their relation to continuing

Abstract

Introduction: Broadly speaking, attitude can be defined as one of the basic elements in personality development, which shapes a person's behavior. Objetive: To determine the attitude of nursing professionals to pain in children. Material: The universe of subjects consisted of 121 male and female nurses who worked in pediatric services at secondary-level health facilities in the province of Cienfuegos (Cuba). Method: A descriptive observational study was performed in the pediatric services of these health centers. The subjects were given a questionnaire to identify their attitude towards pain in children. This attitude was related to the variables, work experience and continuing education. The differences between response frequencies of the groups of participants were analyzed by means of the chi square test. Mean values were compared by using the Anova t-test for independent groups. The value regarded as statistically significant was p < 0.05. Results: The results obtained showed that 71.1% of the participants have a negative attitude towards pediatric pain, and that this attitude is significantly related to their training. Conclusions: As nurses received more training, their attitude towards pain in children was found to be more tolerant and positive.