Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore long term care hospital nurses'' perception and performance of pain management for patients with dementia.
Methods: The study design was a descriptive survey and the data were collected from July 1 through July 25 in 2014. The subjects were 199 nurses working in 26 long term care hospitals in B city, Korea. The perception of pain management was measured with using the instrument of Barry et al. (2012). The performance of pain management was measured with using the instrument of Eun Kyung Kim and Myung Hwa Kim (2012). Data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, Pearson''s correlation coefficient with SPSS/WIN 18.0 program.
Results: The perception of pain management was only 3.33 points in average, understanding of pain was 3.04 points, pain assessment was 3.46 points, pain management was 3.06 points, and obstacles to pain control was 3.67 points. The performance of pain management was 3.77 points in average, pharmacological management was 3.95 points and most frequently presented. Pain assessment was 3.94 points, pain management evaluation was 3.77 points, non-pharmacological management was 3.57 points and patient & family education was 3.28 points. The perception of pain management showed significant differences according to the length of service in the long term care hospitals (F=5.02, p=.002) and the educational experience related to pain (t=2.04, p=.043). The performance of pain management showed significant differences according to the educational experience related to pain (t=2.26, p=.025). There was a statistically significant correlation between the perception of pain management and the performance of pain management for dementia patients (r=.46, p<.001).
Conclusion: Long term care hospital nurses'' perception of pain management for patients with dementia was low and the performance of pain management was good. Nurses who have experiences of the education for pain management were high in both perception and performance of pain management. There was a significant correlation between the perception and performance of pain management. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the educational programs for pain management and provide them for nurses in order to improve nurses'' perception and performance of pain management for patients with dementia.