Aim: The present study aimed at exploring the level of knowledge of pain assessment and management among orthopedic physicians at western region hospitals in Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia. In addition, the present study sought to identify any significant statistical differences in orthopedic physicians’ knowledge of pain assessment and management referred to their gender and/or years of experience.
Method: This was a cross-sectional study that was conducted between March and May 2021. A convenient sample of 186 orthopedic physicians were recruited from four tertiary public hospitals from the western region of Saudi Arabia (King Fahad Hospital in Albaha city, Alnoor specialist hospital in Mecca city, and King Abdul-Aziz Medical City in Jeddah city. The study adopted a modified version of pain assessment and management knowledge questionnaire developed by Ferrell & McCaffery (2000) that consisted of 15 items.
Results: The results of the study showed that orthopedic physicians at western region public hospitals had sufficient knowledge regarding basic pain assessment and management aspects, such as adjustment of opioids doses based on patient’s response (90.9%), usual duration of morphine analgesia (89.8%), patients’ sleep despite of severe pain (83.9%), and reliance on parents’ assessment of pain if the patient is a child under 11 years old (80.1%). However, there was a lack of knowledge regarding effectiveness of Aspirin and NSAIDS in bone metastasis cases (47.8%), pain sensitivity and experience among pediatrics (43.5%), using of opioids in patients having substance abuse history (40.3%), and tolerance of elderly patients to opioids (22%). Moreover, the study showed that there was significant association of both gender and years of experience to the orthopedic physicians’ level of knowledge of pain assessment and management.
Conclusion: The study concluded that orthopedic physicians have adequate level of knowledge about pain assessment and management with regard to the basic pain assessment and management parameters. However, there is a significant lack of knowledge regarding the use of opioids and advanced tolerance and sensitivity of both pediatric and elderly patients when assessing and managing pain. The study recommends increasing the orthopedic physicians’ knowledge and practice regarding pain assessment and management through conducting more educational and training sessions.
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