Record Detail

Pain is a major symptom that causes suffering among patients diagnosed with cancer. Identifying physicians’ and nurses’
knowledge, attitudes, and their perceived barriers of cancer pain management is considered an essential step in improving cancer
pain relief. The purposes of this study are to compare physicians’ and nurses’ knowledge and attitudes toward cancer pain
management (CPM) and describe their perceived barriers to CPM at oncology units. A descriptive cross-sectional design was
utilized to obtain data through self-report questionnaire. The total number of sample size was 207 participants (72 physicians and
135 nurses). Findings revealed that both physicians and nurses had fair knowledge and attitudes toward CPM. Physicians had
significantly higher knowledge and better attitudes than nurses (62.3 vs. 51.5%, respectively). Physicians were knowledgeable
about pharmacological pain management and opioid addiction but had negative attitudes toward pain assessment. Nurses’
knowledge was better in regard of CPM guidelines, while they had poor knowledge about pharmacological pain management
and opioid addiction. Physicians and nurses perceived knowledge deficit, lack of pain assessment, opioid unavailability, and lack
of psychological interventions as the most common barriers to CPM. It is recommended to integrate recent evidence-based
guidelines about CPM in oncology units that aim to improve practice. Offering continuing education courses in hospitals guided
by pain teams is another essential recommendation for effective CPM.