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Knowledge and Attitudes of Chinese Oncology Nurses Regarding Cancer Pain Management—a Cross-Sectional Study

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Abstract

Objective

To measure the knowledge and attitudes of Chinese oncology nurses regarding cancer pain management and explore related factors.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was conducted. A convenience sample of 505 Chinese oncology nurses from 20 provinces, 4 municipalities, and 4 autonomous regions was recruited between April and October 2018. A Chinese version of the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (KASRP) was used. Socio-demographic characteristics were also measured by a multi-item questionnaire.

Results

The mean accuracy of KASRP in all participants was 56.11% ± 11.05%. According to univariate analysis, oncology nurses’ cancer pain knowledge and attitudes were positively correlated with age, region, education level, years of oncology nursing, clinical practice of cancer pain management, average monthly number of patients with cancer pain, and the experience of cancer pain–related training. The results of multiple linear regression revealed that nurses’ age, education level, experience of cancer pain–related training and clinical practice of cancer pain management were independent influencing factors (all p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Most Chinese oncology nurses had misconceptions about cancer pain management and lacked relevant knowledge. We should assign importance to targeted cancer pain training and develop training methods that closely relate to clinical practices.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Beijing Hospital Authority for sponsoring Beijing Municipal Administration of Hospitals Incubating Program [grant number PX2017052]. We are grateful to nurses who gave their time to take part of this study.

Authorship

Wenhua Yu: Data collection, statistical analysis, manuscript writing

Dan Li: Data collection

Yuhan Lu: Study design, revising manuscript critically

Hong Yang: Data collection, study design

Xiaoxiao Ma: Data collection

All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nursing Department, Key laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Peking University Cancer Hospital & Institute, 52 Fucheng road, Haidian district, Beijing, 100142, China

    Wenhua Yu, Yuhan Lu, Hong Yang & Xiaoxiao Ma

  2. Department of Radiotherapy, The Fifth Medical Center, PLA General Hospital, 100 West Fourth Ring Road, Fengtai District, Beijing, 100039, China

    Dan Li

Authors
  1. Wenhua Yu
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  2. Dan Li
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  3. Yuhan Lu
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  4. Hong Yang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuhan Lu.

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Considerations

The studies have been approved by the Beijing Cancer Hospital Ethical Committee and have been performed in accordance with the ethical standards as laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Yu, W., Li, D., Lu, Y. et al. Knowledge and Attitudes of Chinese Oncology Nurses Regarding Cancer Pain Management—a Cross-Sectional Study. J Canc Educ 36, 1115–1123 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01743-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-020-01743-z

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