Journal of advanced nursing
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This study measured the attitudes of Finnish paediatric nurses to children in pain and the connection between nurses' attitudes, nurses' attributes and nurses' own view of their knowledge and ability to take care of children in pain. The measurements were based on a purpose-designed instrument consisting of a 41-item Likert-type questionnaire and demographic data. The convenience sample consisted of paediatric nurses at all five university hospitals in Finland (n = 303). ⋯ The findings of this study indicate that although nurses' attitudes to pain management are mainly positive, there is much variation in how they feel they can actually provide quality care to control pain. More attention should be paid to training nurses and to providing knowledge about the treatment of pain in children. Future research should look at nurses' existing knowledge base as well as their activities in the assessment and management of pain.