Nurses’Knowledge and Practices Regarding Pos t- operative Pain Management of Patients Undergoing Cardiac Surgeries

Background: Post-operative pain management is a crucial and a critical aspect of nursing care after surgery that significantly affect patient recovery as untreated pain may lead to serious complications. Nurses should have adequate knowledge and good practice regarding pain management in order to provide quality of care. Objective: To assess nurses’ knowledge and practice regarding post-operative pain management of patients undergoing cardiac surgeries.Methods: Descriptive Explorative research design with Convenience sampling method involving 46 nurses was used in the study. The instrument used to collect data for this study was adapted from the previous similar studies. Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS version 21. Chi-square was used to identify the relationship between variables and statistical significance was set at P value below 0.05. Results: The results of this study showed that the majority of nurses had fair knowledge and the majority of nurses had satisfactory level of practice. Statistical significant association was found between level of knowledge and years of experience, level of education and training on pain management (p<0.01) as well as between level of knowledge and level of practice (p<0.01). Conclusion: The study highlights critical gaps in nurse’s knowledge and practice regarding post-operative pain management. Nurses need to adhere to best practices in pain management by increasing their theoretical and practical knowledge in order to deliver effective care. Recommendation: There is a need of targeted training, policy reforms, and future research with different approach to enhance competencies among nurses and improve patient’s satisfaction during post -operative period.