Barriers to pain management as perceived by nurses: A descriptive study in a Swiss University Hospital

Abstract

Nurses, who are daily confronted with issues related to care, play a major role in pain management. They, however, face barriers to optimal pain management that can be linked to the patient, to the system or to the caregivers. The objective of this descriptive, cross-sectional study is to identify the barriers to optimal pain management for patients in acute care settings, as perceived by nurses. The convenience sample included 70 nurses working in four different medical and surgical wards of a university teaching hospital in Switzerland. Participation rate was 65.4%. The results show that 24 obstacles influence clinical practice. Out of these 24, 9 are linked to the patient, 7 to the system and 8 to nurses. This confirms the complexity of evaluating and relieving pain, and contradicts the nurses’ lack of knowledge as the unique cause for poor pain management.