The framework that guided this study was Betty Neuman’s Systems Model (1995), The Gate Control Theory (1965), and Malcolm Knowles’ Principles of Andragogy (1998). The pathophysiology of pain and the pharmacological treatment of pain were also used to guide this study. This non-experimental/comparative study utilized a repeated measures design and retrospective, as well as, cross-sectional data to investigate the effectiveness of an educational intervention designed to increase nursing knowledge/attitudes regarding cancer pain management.
The overall findings of this study, following the educational intervention, indicate that there was an increase in the nursing knowledge/attitudes. While the study did not show an increase in the total number of nursing documentations post-educational intervention, they were of statistical and practical importance. These study results are also of clinical importance. When examining the educational intervention there was an increase in pre- and post-intervention scores from 75.56% to 84.54%, with an exact p=. 003, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks Test. The alpha set for this study was α = .10.
This study also provided relevant information regarding the oncology nurses’ characteristics and patient demographics. Of the nurses in this study, 50% were greater than 41 years of age. The nurses in the 21-30 age group increased their scores from 69% to 95%, which was the greatest increase in score from the various ages. The patients’ admitting diagnoses were lung cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer, which are found in the literature as the most common cancer diagnoses for men and women.
