Nurses Knowledge and Neonatal pain management.

Back ground of the study: Nurses, who spend more time with patients in pain, are sometimes seen as major contributors to the problem of inadequate Neonatal pain management. Nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and beliefs have a significant impact on the effectiveness of pain management. (Marks & Sachar, 1973; Ferrell, et al., 1990; Drayer et al., 1999). Knowledge deficits may cause nurses to hold negative beliefs and attitudes towards Neonatal pain management. Purpose of the study: The purpose of the study is to explore the level of the nurses’ knowledge on Neonatal pain management. Objective of the study: 1. To assess the knowledge of staff nurses regarding Neonatal pain management. 2. To determine the association between knowledge scores of staff nurses with selected demographic variables. Methodology: Pre experimental one group pre-test and post-test study design was used for the study. Sixty staff nurses were selected by purposive sampling technique from selected hospitals of Puducherry, as the samples. Results: Study shows that the Pre-test and Post–test knowledge scores found statistically significant (i.e) ‘t’ = 1.671, p<0.05. It reveals the effectiveness of structured teaching program. And the study also shows that there is no significant association between the knowledge scores of the staff nurses with the selected demographic variables like age, gender, educational qualification, total clinical experience, previous knowledge regarding Neonatal pain management. Conclusion: Study concluded that there is a significant difference in the level of knowledge scores, where staff nurses gained adequate information regarding Neonatal pain management, for new born babies undergoing painful procedures after structured teaching program.