• James Cavalier, Sharon B Hampton, Rae Langford, Lene Symes, and Anne Young.
• Nelda C. Stark College of Nursing, Texas Woman's University, Houston, Texas. Electronic address: jcavalier@twu.edu.
• Pain Manag Nurs. 2018 Jun 1; 19 (3): 238-245.

BackgroundUnderstanding whether a patient's race or gender and/or the nurse's race or gender influence how nurses form care decisions can contribute to exploration of methods that can positively affect disparate treatment.AimsThis research examined how the variables of race and gender of both the nurse and the patient influence nurses' decision making about pain management.DesignA randomized four-group post-test-only experimental design was used to examine the variables and variable interactions.SettingsAn investigator-developed case vignette tool hosted online was used to obtain data about nursing pain management decisions. The vignette intervention was developed to simulate four exact patient scenarios that differed only by patient race and gender. Participants/Subjects: A quota sample of 400 nurses was recruited using a self-selected face-to-face recruitment technique.MethodsA four-way between-groups analysis of variance assessed whether the gender of the nurse, race of the nurse, gender of the patient, or race of the patient made any differences in the dose intensity of pain medications selected by the nurse sample.ResultsNo significant interactions were noted between any combinations of the four independent variables. A significant main effect was noted in medication intensity for nurse gender (F [1,384] = 9.75, p = .002).ConclusionsData trends suggested that gender stereotypes about how patients managed pain played a role in dose intensity decisions because female patients on average were given higher doses of pain medication than male patients were by all the nurses in the study. Further research is needed in this complex area of study.Copyright © 2017 American Society for Pain Management Nursing. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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