• Ravali Tarigopula, Naveen K Tyagi, Jill Jackson, Chaitali Gupte, Pooja Raju, and Jennifer LaRosa.
• Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, Newark, USA.
• Pain Med. 2014 Jun 1; 15 (6): 1027-35.

ObjectiveOur study examined the effect of health care workers' personal characteristics on how they perceive and intend to treat patients' pain in the intensive care unit. Though pain perceptions have been well established from the patient's perspective, less is known about how variations in health care workers may affect their perceptions of pain.DesignThis study consisted of a 28-item questionnaire distributed to 122 medical staff personnel over a 12-month period. The questionnaire included items regarding respondent characteristics such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, and level of training.Subjects And SettingThe questionnaire was distributed to physicians and nurses working in the critical care setting.MethodsResponses were provided using a Likert scale and scored on subscales of hemodynamic instability, addiction and tolerance, pain expression, legal issues, and education.ResultsThe results demonstrated that characteristics such as age and race were significant predictors of perceptions regarding addiction subscale scores (β = -0.256, P = 0.006 and β = 0.183, P = 0.053, respectively). Race proved to be a significant factor in pain expression scores (β = 0.183, P = 0.053). Work-related variables, such as being in or out of active medical training and being within the critical care specialty itself, were significant predictors of addiction subscale scores as well (β = -0.238, P = 0.012 and β = 0.191, P = 0.050, respectively).ConclusionHealth care providers' race, age, level of education, and medical subspecialty were significant factors affecting their perceptions of pain management and intended treatment.Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

22 keywords...

hide…