Degree of Knowledge of Health Care Professionals About Pain Management and Use of Opioids in Pediatrics

Objective To evaluate the degree of knowledge about pain management and opioids use by professionals working at three pediatric units. Design This is a cross‐sectional study. Setting This study was carried out at three pediatric units (pediatrics, intensive care unit, and oncology) of H ospital de C línicas de P orto A legre, which is a university hospital located in southern B razil. Subject The subjects of this study include physicians, pharmacists, physiotherapists, nurses, nursing technicians, and nursing assistants. Methods Cross‐sectional study carried out in a university hospital in southern B razil. A self‐applicable semi‐structured questionnaire was handed out to 182 professionals from D ecember 2011 to M arch 2012. Results The response rate was 67% (122); the average percentage of correct answers was 63.2 ± 1.4%. The most frequent errors were: an opioid must not be used if the cause of pain is unknown (47%; 54/115); patients often develop respiratory depression (42.3%; 22/52); and confusion about symptoms of withdrawal, tolerance, and dependency syndromes (81.9%; 95/116). Only 8.8% (10/114) reported the use of pain scales to identify pain in children. The most often cited hindrance to control pain was the difficulty to measure and spot pain in pediatric patients. Finally, 50.8% (62/122) of them did not have any previous training in pain management. Conclusions Problems in the processes of pain identification, measurement, and treatment have been found. Results suggest that there is a need for both an investment in continuing education of professionals and the development of protocols to optimize the analgesic therapy, thus preventing increased child suffering.