Evaluating the relationship between empathy, pain knowledge and attitudes among nursing students.

BACKGROUND: It is essential for nurses to manage pain effectively. Nurses start to learn about pain while still students. Pain assessment is more effective with knowledge of pain, positive attitude, and empathy. Nurse educators should evaluate nursing students' knowledge and attitudes toward pain management and their relationship with empathy and should revise the curriculum accordingly. No published studies have been found to date where the relationship between nursing students' knowledge and attitudes toward pain and empathy has been investigated. OBJECTIVES: This aim of this study was to determine the factors affecting pain knowledge and attitudes of nursing students, and to evaluate the relationship between students level of empathy and pain knowledge and attitudes. DESIGN: This study was a quantitative, descriptive-correlation design. SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: The study population was 150 students who were studying in the third and senior grades a nursing department in North Cyprus. The sample included 133 nursing students. METHODS: Data were collected with the 'Student Descriptive Information Form', 'Knowledge and Attitude about Pain' questionnaire, and the "Basic Empathy Scale" (BES). The data were evaluated with descriptive analysis, nonparametric tests, and correlation analysis by using SPSS 20.0 program. RESULTS: Mean affective and cognitive empathy scores were 30.16 (SD = 4.42) and 29.29 (SD = 2.65), respectively, and the mean score obtained from the Nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain was 13.50 (SD = 3.22). Furthermore, 91% of the participants stated that the patient is the most accurate judge of the intensity of pain, but only 1.5% of them responded correctly to questions on pharmacological methods of pain therapy. A weakly positive correlation was found between cognitive (r = 0.100, p = 0.252) and affective (r = 0.013, p = 0.881) empathy levels and pain knowledge and attitudes; nevertheless, this was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The study results indicate that curricula regarding pain management should improve the knowledge and attitudes of nursing students toward pain management. Seminars and practical training about how to use empathy in pain management should be planned and clinical practice should be scheduled more frequently.

The Effect of Rapid Antigen Detection Test on Antibiotic Prescription Decision of Clinicians and Reducing Antibiotic Costs in Children with Acute Pharyngitis.

We aimed to investigate the effect of rapid antigen detection test (RADT) in the diagnosis of streptococcal pharyngitis, its impact on antibiotic prescription decision of pediatricians and influence on reduction of antibiotic treatment costs in children with pharyngitis. The study group consisted of 223 patients who were diagnosed with pharyngitis by pediatricians. The sensitivity and specificity of RADT were 92.1% (95% Cl: 78.6-98.3%) and 97.3% (95% Cl: 93.8-99.1%), respectively. In the first assessment, before performing RADT, pediatricians decided to prescribe antibiotics for 178 (79.8%) patients with pharyngitis. After learning RADT results, pediatricians finally decided to prescribe antibiotics for 83 (37.2%) patients with pharyngitis, and antibiotic prescription decreased by 42.6%. Antibiotic costs in non-Group A streptococcus pharyngitis, Group A streptococcus pharyngitis and all subjects groups decreased by 80.8%, 48%, and 76.4%, respectively. Performing RADT in children with pharyngitis has an important impact on treatment decision of clinicians, reduction of unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions and antibiotic costs.