Student nurses' pain knowledge and attitudes towards pain management over the last 20 years: A systematic review

Objective: To discover if nursing students have improved their level of pain knowledge and their attitudes towards pain management over the last 20 years. Design: Systematic review utilising the Kable, Pich, and Maslin-Prothero 12 step approach to document a search strategy. Data sources: A search was conducted from 2000 to 2020 using CINAHL, PubMed, Embase and ProQuest. Review methods: Studies exploring the level of pain management knowledge and attitudes of nursing students were included. The Critical Review Form - Quantitative Studies provided the appraisal framework (Law et al., 1998). A narrative synthesis of eligible studies was undertaken. Results: Six studies with a total of 1454 participants were included. The studies demonstrated that nursing students have not improved their level of pain knowledge and attitudes towards pain management in the last 20 years. Whilst many nursing students thought they possessed adequate pain knowledge, the studies all demonstrated that their pain knowledge is lacking and that they do not have appropriate attitudes towards pain. Students did not recognise the patient who was not grimacing as being in pain despite the patient report of pain. Conclusions: These findings support the notion that nursing education does not include sufficient focus on pain identification and management. Alignment of nursing pain education with the curriculum developed in 1993 by the International Association for the Study of Pain is needed to ensure nurses have appropriate knowledge so that patients can receive effective pain management.

Automated summary

A systematic review revealed that nursing students have not improved their level of pain knowledge and attitudes towards pain management over the last 20 years. There is a need for nursing education to focus more on pain identification and management in order to ensure effective pain management for patients.