Effects of a pain program on nurses' pharmacological pain management

Surgical nurses from five Dutch general hospitals participated in a continuing education program on pain assessment and management. Effects of the program were measured in a pretest-post-test control group design, in which nursing wards were randomly allocated to the experimental condition (program) or to the control condition (no program). It was found that the program led to an improvement of the quality of analgesic administrations, and to an increase in the quantity of nonopioids administered. The program did not, however, result in significant changes in the quantity of opioid analgesics and local anesthetics administered.