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ABSTRACT
Millions of surgeries performed on patients are accompanied by some degree of pain. Successful outcome of any surgery is partly dependent on pre-, intra- and post-operative pain assessment and management. Nurses are important figures in pain assessment and management. This study was designed to determine how nurses go about post-operative pain assessment and management in selected Hospitals Benin city, Edo state. A descriptive cross sectional survey was used. The instrument was a validated self-administered questionnaire developed by the researcher. One hundred and fifty-seven nurses from the surgical wards of the selected hospitals were purposively selected for the study. Data analysis was done with SPSS version 16. Results showed that majority of nurses 66.2% had a poor level of knowledge, 27.4% had a fair level of knowledge while minority 6.4% had a good level of knowledge on post-operative pain assessment. Only 9.6% had negative attitude while 90.4% had positive attitudes towards post-operative pain assessment and management.McGill Pain Questionnaire was the most used assessment method with the mean score of 2.84 while Dallas Pain Questionnaire was the least used with a mean score of 1.90. I provide clean, calm, and a well-ventilated ward environment for post-operative pain management was the most used non-pharmacological method of post-operative pain management with a mean score of 3.69 while I encourage use of acupuncture with a mean score of 2.50 was the least. The most used pharmacological intervention used from this study was Acetaminophen (paracetamol) with a mean score of 3.63 while Opiod agonist (codeine, morphine sulfate, tramadol) with a mean score of 2.23 was the least used. In view of this result, it is recommended that nurses upgrade their knowledge through continuing education. Hospital managers should establish standards and guidelines for assessing and managing post-operative pain.
Key words: Post-operative pain, Assessment, Management, Nurses.
