Hao Zhang,1 Ya Meng,2 Xiaoxia Xu,3 Yanwei Li,4 Xue Li,5 Hongtao Hu,1 Lin Zheng,1 Xiaochun Hu6 

1Department of Interventional Radiology, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University (Henan Cancer Hospital), Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Nursing, Zhengzhou Health Vocational College, Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Nursing, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University (Henan Cancer Hospital), Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 4Department of Pain and Palliative Medicine, The Affiliated Cancer Hospital of Zhengzhou University (Henan Cancer Hospital), Zhengzhou, People’s Republic of China; 5Department of Radiology, Daping Hospital, Army Medical University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China; 6Minimally Invasive Interventional Operating Room, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China

Correspondence: Hongtao Hu, Email 13592616373@163.com

Objective: To critically evaluate the present status of perioperative pain management among nurses in interventional departments as well as to delineate the factors influencing the self-efficacy of pain management to provide a foundation for enhancing perioperative pain management practices.
Methods: This was a descriptive cross-sectional study on 941 nurses from 24 Chinese provinces and municipalities. A questionnaire was conducted to examine the current pain management practices. Independent sample t-test and analysis of variance were used for inter-group comparison. Multiple linear regression analysis was done to analyze the influencing factors of pain management self-efficacy.
Results: About 76.5% of the nurses in the interventional departments had undergone pain management training; however, more than one-third (37.6%) had not in the past two years. Merely 4.9% of nurses expressed confidence that their knowledge in pain management was sufficient to meet the demands the clinical practice. The foremost three areas of pain management information desired by the nurses in the intervention department were pain psychology (79.6%), pharmacological pain treatment (78.1%), and non-pharmacological pain interventions (77.4%). A majority (57.6%) of the nurses failed to assess the patients’ comprehension and perspectives of analgesia, elements contributing to pain exacerbation or alleviation, and the outcomes of analgesic measures. The cumulative score for the pain self-efficacy questionnaire among nurses in the intervention department was 63.95± 21.83. Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that variables such as the acquisition of pain knowledge, the frequency of pain training in the past two years, the ratio of evaluation tools employed for assessment, the prevalent utilization of multi-dimensional evaluation instruments, and professional course studies in academia were determinants influencing pain management self-efficacy.
Conclusion: Perioperative pain management by interventional department nurses in China is unstandardized and lacks continuous education. Nursing administrators should create targeted training to boost pain assessment, prevention and treatment abilities.

Keywords: intervention, pain management, the status quo, self-efficacy