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Background: In the sub-Saharan African countries, cancer pain is a widespread and intractable problem that has a major impact on the quality of life of patients with cancer and their relatives. For many patients, cancer causes a series of symptoms, where pain is one of those that, according to research, affects the patient negatively in several ways. Purpose: The purpose of the literature review was to compile literature on pain in patients with cancer in sub-Saharan Africa. Method: A general literature study based on a systematic method of analyzing data (Popenoe et al., 2021). Searches have taken place in databases of scientific articles and 13 articles with a qualitative, quantitative and banded design have been included.   Results: A compilation of the results yielded four themes: Occurrence of pain, Pain assessment instruments, Medicines, CAM and alternative treatment methods and Impact on daily life. The studies show that patients with cancer report a lot of pain and that assessment tools are used very rarely. In addition to this, drugs for pain are difficult to obtain. Alternative treatment methods are common and pain is strongly associated with anxiety, depression and negative impact on quality of life.   Conclusion: Patients with cancer in sub-Saharan Africa report a lot of pain, which has a major impact on daily life. A number of obstacles to optimal pain relief have been identified and several studies have been conducted on these obstacles. Solutions exist, but the process is complicated by laws, financial priorities, the ignorance of the healthcare staff and availability of pain medication. Education of healthcare professionals, overview of laws and local regulations and increased availability of pain medication can improve the pain problem and increase the quality of life for patients with cancer in sub-Saharan Africa.

Aim of the Study The aim of this study was to determine if the nursing interventions of patient education and multidisciplinary coordination of care were able to improve pain control in the cancer patient in an acute hospital setting. Background of the Study The role of the nurse in cancer pain management has been defined as being that of an educator, coordinator of care and advocate. A nurse with adequate knowledge of pain and its application to the cancer population and functioning in the role as defined is believed to be able to overcome many of the barriers that exist in implementing adequate analgesia and improve pain management in cancer patients. Design of the Study A randomized experimental control group design was utilized. The study comprised 3 experimental groups and one control group incorporating pre and post testing. The Intervention of the Study Experimental group one: subjects received education regarding their pain management which was tailored to meet their specific needs. Experimental group two: subjects underwent a pain assessment and construction of a care plan which was communicated verbally to the treating medical and nursing team and followed up with a written report which was documented in the history and sent to the treating medical physician. Experimental group three: subjects received the combined interventions administered to groups one and two. Control group four: subjects were assessed and all information was record in the same manner as for the experimental groups. The control group received their usual care during the study and their pain scores were measured at the same time intervals as the three experimental groups. Instrumentation The Wisconsin Brief Pain Questionnaire was used for the assessment of all subjects. The McGill Pain Questionnaire was used as the outcome measure following intervention. Data Analysis A one-way analysis of variance was used to detect the differences between the intervention groups and the control group. T-Tests were used to detect the differences between the groups incorporating a Bonferroni adjustment for frequent T tests. Results The main effect demonstrated a significant difference between the treatment groups and control at a significance level of 0.002. T-Tests showed no significant difference between control and communication groups and no significant difference between education and combined groups. A significant difference was detected between education and control and between combined and control. Conclusions Nursing interventions of patient education, coordination of care and advocacy can significantly improve cancer pain management. Intervention was tailored to meet the specific patient needs based on findings from the assessment and was dependent upon an adequate knowledge base. The nursing intervention of education was the most powerful of the three intervention types and its success was in tailoring to each individual. However, it is believed that with further recognition of the role of the nurse as coordinator of care will lead to greater improvements in cancer pain management.