Assessment of Pain Management in Anaesthesia Practice among Nurse Anaesthetists

ABSTRACTThis study was carried out on assessment of pain management among nurse anaesthetists in Dalhatu Araf Specialist Hospital, Lafia. A descriptive, non-experimental survey method was used  to obtain accurate information for the study from the population  The objectives determine ways by which the nurse anaesthetists manage pain, find out how to assess pain on patients, to identify the factors that affect effective pain management in the hospital. Data were collected using questionnaire with 4 sections where sections B, C and D contains ten (10) closed and one (1) ended question. Analysis was done using descriptive tables, inferential statistic of chi-square to test the hypothesis. The descriptive statistics with frequency and percentage distribution is used to present the items. The chi square inferential statistics was used to present the testing of the hypotheses, at 0.05 alpha level of significance. From the findings,the respondents carry out pain assessment on their patients one time or the other but majority do so only when patients complain of pain.  Hence, they need to be consistent and effective in the manner they carry out the assessment of pain for best result. The need to update themselves for new trends in the assessment and management of pain, change of attitude, believe and behavior that contributes to underassessment and under treatment of patients. Unrelieved pain can become a syndrome in person's life and cause a deformity. Therefore, proper assessment and management of pain facilitates quick recovery, prevents additional health complications and improving individual quality of life thereby reducing mortality rate. Based on the above findings, the researcher recommends that, nurse anesthetists should consider the age of the clients when assessing or managing their threshold of pain, because adults has higher pain threshold than the children. The study showed that the higher the clients education the higher their threshold of pain and vice versa. Nurse anaesthetists shoud consider the educational level of clients when assessing/managing threshold of pain.Key Words: Anaesthesia, Assessment, Knowledge, Pain Management, Practice