Post-operative pain management practice and associated factors among nurses working at public hospitals, in Oromia region, Ethiopia

Abstract Background Management of postoperative pain leads to positive patient progress and shortens the duration of hospital stay. Nurses, who are the majority in almost all hospitals and spend most of their time with the patients, are expected to play big role in the postoperative pain management practice. However, there is paucity of information regarding postoperative pain management practice and its associated factors among nurses. Objective To assess postoperative pain management practice and associated factors among nurses working at public hospitals, in Oromia Region, Ethiopia, 2020. Methods Institutional based cross sectional study was employed among randomly selected 377 nurses working at public hospitals in Oromia region, Ethiopia. Data was collected by distributing structured self-administered questionnaires that adapted from different literatures. The data were entered into Epi data version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 22 for analysis. Variables with significant association in the bivariate analyses were entered into a multivariable regression analysis to identify the independent factors associated with nurses’ postoperative pain management practice. Significant factors were declared at P<0.05. Result The result showed that, 66% of nurses had good pain management practice. Nurses favorable attitude towards post-operative pain management [AOR: 4.698, 95% CI: (2.725-8.100)], having access to read pain management guideline [AOR: 3.112, 95% CI: (1.652-5.862)], adequate knowledge of post-operative pain management [AOR: 2.939, 95% CI: (1.652-5.227)], working at Operation Room [AOR: 2.934, 95% CI: (1.27-6.795)] and received training on pain management [AOR: 3.289, 95% CI: (1.461-7.403)] were significantly associated with the practices of postoperative pain management. Conclusion and recommendation Sixty six percent of participants (nurses) have a good level of practice of postoperative pain management. Training on post-operative pain management (POPM), access to pain management guidelines, knowledge and attitude are significant factors in post-operative pain management practice. Governmental and other bodies concerned to post-operative care quality needs to show commitment on availing infrastructures like pain management guideline and improving nurses knowledge and attitude.