Abstract:
Background: Pain management for hospitalized patient requires nurses’ pain management
competency. However; there is paucity of information on nurse’s pain management competency in
Jimma Zone public hospitals.
Objective: To assess nurses’ pain management competency and associated factors among nurses
working in public Hospitals, Jimma zone, Oromia Regional State, South west Ethiopia.
Methods: Institutional based cross- sectional study design was conducted on 310 nurses working in
public hospitals, Jimma zone, from March 1–28, 2017. The study subjects were selected by simple
random sampling technique using of lottery method. Data was collected using standardized selfadministered questionnaire. SPSS 20.0 version for windows was used for data entry and analysis.
Descriptive analyses were performed on all study variables. Binary logistic regression analyses used
to see the strength of association between independent variables and dependent variable. Variables
with p<0.25 in the bivariate analyses were entered into a multivariable regression analysis to identify
the independent factors associated with nurses’ competency. Significant factors reported at P<0.05.
Results: Atotal of 298 respondents completely returned questionnaire producing response rate of
96.0%. Majority 205(68.8%) were in age range of 36 to 55 years, 177(59.4%) were males,
236(79.2%) of them were working at referral hospital and 213(71.4%) served less than 5years. One
hundred nine (36.6%) were competent on pain management Respondents who were working at
medical with [AOR=2.05(1,02,4.12)],Nurses’ who were working at surgical ward with
[AOR=0.19(0.05,0.64)]and Nurse-Physician work relationship with [AOR=2.36(95%CI:1.36,4.08)]
significantly associated with nurses’ pain management competency.
Conclusion and Recommendation: The overall nurses’ pain management competency level in
Jimma zone, Public hospital is very low. Among many factors contributed to the nurses’ patient pain
management competency were nurse-physician work relationship, presence of protocol and working
unit. Those show that Jimma public hospitals should design strategy to improve pain management
competency. Nurses’ pain management competency enhances utilization of protocols, that specifies
pain management by unit and promote nurse-physician relation.
