疼痛ケアにおける看護師への薬学的教育支援とその効果

Pain management is important in the care of cancer patients. However, narcotic drugs are still not well understood by either patients or medical staff in Japan, which is an obstacle to the development of appropriate pain management. In the present study, we attempted to improve pain management through pharmaceutical education support for nurses. We prepared explanatory materials on narcotic drugs for patients and asked nurses to use them for 2 months to improve pain management. We also held a lecture on pain management and narcotic drugs a month after distributing the materials. In addition, we carried out three questionnaire surveys on the nurses to evaluate the effect of pharmaceutical education support on the understanding of pain management, anxiety and implementation status. Our education support improved nurse's understanding of pain management (score: 4.7 to 6.4, <i>p</i><0.01), lessened anxiety (score: 5.9 to 3.8, <i>p</i><0.01), and led to appropriate practical pain management (score: 4.3 to 6.1, <i>p</i><0.01). These results suggest that the pharmaceutical education support for nurses is useful for improving practical pain management.