Practices and Barriers of Nursing Professionals in Non-pharmacological Pain Intervention

Abstract

Introduction: Pain is a common symptom that leads people to consult hospital centers, where the preference for pharmacological treatment is evident, but there are non-pharmacological measures that are little used and investigated.

Objective: To describe the practices and barriers of nursing professionals in non-pharmacological pain intervention.

Methods: Quantitative, descriptive and cross-sectional design. The population consisted of 67 nurses from the Hospital Regional Docente Las Mercedes in Chiclayo, Peru. The sample was a census sample. Data were collected between April and May 2023 through a questionnaire with Aiken's validation: 0.99 and Cronbach's alpha: 0.74. The instrument covered sociodemographic data, practices and barriers to the use of non-pharmacological pain relief practices. Descriptive data analysis was performed.

Results: 97.00% of the respondents were female. The most commonly used non-pharmacological pain relief practices are restriction of movement/rest to the person (90.32%), breathing techniques (41.94%). Among the barriers, poor training in non-pharmacological methods (88.71%), inadequate equipment and logistics (82.26%), and inadequate infrastructure (78.58%).

Conclusions: Nurses most frequently use movement restriction and respiratory techniques as non-pharmacological measures to relieve pain. As barriers, they highlight the lack of training and inadequate infrastructure. Thus, this issue should be addressed in nursing education, researched and implemented in hospital work.