Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Multicenter Study
Can A Complex Online Intervention Improve Cancer Nurses' Pain Screening and Assessment Practices? Results from a Multicenter, Pre-post Test Pilot Study.
Unrelieved cancer pain has an adverse impact on quality of life. While routine screening and assessment forms the basis of effective cancer pain management, it is often poorly done, thus contributing to the burden of unrelieved cancer pain. The aim of this study was to test the impact of an online, complex, evidence-based educational intervention on cancer nurses' pain assessment capabilities and adherence to cancer pain screening and assessment guidelines. ⋯ Participants who completed the intervention (n = 44) increased their pain assessment knowledge, assessment tool knowledge, and confidence undertaking a pain assessment (p < .001). The positive changes in nurses' pain assessment capabilities translated into a significant increasing linear trend in the proportion of documented pain assessments in patients' charts at the three time points (χ(2) trend = 18.28, df = 1, p < .001). There is evidence that learning content delivered using a spaced learning format, augmented with pain assessment audit and feedback data, improves inpatient cancer nurses' self-perceived pain screening and assessment capabilities and strengthens cancer pain guideline adherence.