<p> Every patient has a right to be treated with dignity, respect and high quality pain management (Olivier, et al., 2012). Pain continues to be inadequately treated by healthcare providers (Zuccaro, et al., 2012). The purpose of this DNP project was to determine if perinatal nurses’ intent to medicate pregnant women with chronic pain was affected by knowledge of pain, attitude, or demographics. This will explore the theoretical application of Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior which suggests that attitude correlates with intention to act.</p><p> A quantitative, cross-sectional correlation study used a pencil and paper survey to measure knowledge about pain, attitudes, and intent to medicate pregnant women with chronic pain. One hundred perinatal nurses who worked in labor and delivery, mother baby, or the neonatal intensive care unit from four hospitals in northern New Jersey participated in the study. Each hospital provided a different level of perinatal care from community basic, to intermediate, intensive, and regional perinatal center.</p><p> Increased levels of education positively impact perinatal nurses’ knowledge of pain, attitude, and intent to medicate pregnant women with chronic pain. The perinatal nurse’s intent to medicate was not statistically correlated to age, years of nursing experience, or level of perinatal care. The perinatal nurse’s intent to medicate a pregnant woman with chronic pain is positively correlated to increased knowledge of pain (<i>r</i> (100) = 0.463, <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001). Attitude scores were positively correlated with an increased intent to medicate a pregnant woman with chronic pain (<i>r</i> (100) = 0.583, <i>p</i> ≤ 0.001).</p><p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PROQUEST/oai:pqdtoai.proquest.com:10251899 |
| Date | 10 February 2017 |
| Creators | Mellin, Pamela Susan |
| Publisher | The William Paterson University of New Jersey |
| Source Sets | ProQuest.com |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | thesis |
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