Knowledge and Attitude towards Management of Pain in Neonates among Health Care Providers Working in NICU

Many of the comprehensive care components carried out on Neonates admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) causes painful stimuli which is found to have potential damage and causes long term changes in pain pathways. It becomes difficult in neonates to manage pain as they are unable to verbalize it but it can be very well reduced if health care providers have adequate knowledge and positive attitude towards assessment and management. This scenario suggests the need to assess the knowledge and attitude of health care providers towards management of pain in neonates. The objectives of the study were to assess the knowledge and attitude of health care providers towards management of pain in neonates and to find out the association between knowledge and attitude of health care providers towards management of pain in neonates with baseline data. Study was conducted by using descriptive research approach and descriptive design on a target population of 30 health care providers working in NICU selected by using convenient sampling technique. Tools used for data collection were structured knowledge questionnaire and 5 point likert scale to assess the attitude of health care providers towards management of pain in neonates. Data collected was analyzed and interpreted using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings related to level of knowledge scores of health care providers towards management of pain in neonates revealed that 6(20%) had good knowledge, average knowledge was among 20(66.7%) and 4(13.3%) had poor knowledge with mean score of 19. Findings related to attitude of health care providers towards management of pain in neonates revealed that 3(10%) had positive attitude, neutral attitude was among 23(76.7%) and 4(13.3%) had poor attitude with mean score of 107. Chi square value for all associations of knowledge and attitude scores with baseline data was not significant at p<0.05 level. This revealed that there is no significant association between knowledge and attitude scores of health care providers towards management of pain in neonates with baseline data. It was conclusive from the results that health care providers had average knowledge regarding pain management in neonates and most of them showed neutral attitude towards the same.