The effectiveness of continuing education in postoperative pain management: results from a follow-up study.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND: Studies still report high levels of postoperative pain. Inadequate treatment of patients experiencing pain is often due to lack of understanding of pain. METHODS: The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a course on "pain," evaluated by a pretest-posttest design, with a questionnaire mailed to the 168 participants in February 2005. The course consisted of seven sessions held from October 2002 to June 2003 in a public hospital in Udine, Italy. This hospital has 710 beds and more than 30,000 admissions a year. The course, included in the "pain-free hospital" national objective, consisted of lectures, discussions, and role playing. RESULTS: Of the 10 test questions participants answered, seven showed a significant difference between the posttest taken at the end of the course and the posttest taken after 18 months. CONCLUSION: It is believed that knowledge is progressively lost if refresher courses are not held on a regular basis.

Author information

Author/s: Guardini, Ilario (I); Talamini, Renato (R); Lirutti, Moreno (M); Palese, Alvisa (A);

Affiliation: Continuing Education Centre, Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital, Udine, Italy.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Evaluation Studies; Journal Article

Journal: Journal of continuing education in nursing (J Contin Educ Nurs), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jun; vol 39 (issue 6) : pp 281-8

Dates: Created 2008/06/18; Completed 2008/08/14;

PMID: 18557287, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

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