Dataset Information

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Cameroonian physicians with regards to acute pain management in the emergency department: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Pain is the most frequent presenting complaint in patients consulting or admitted to the emergency department (ED). Thus, its acute management is often done by physicians working in the ED. These clinicians are often general practitioners and not emergency medicine physicians in resource-poor settings. Hence, a mastery of pain management by these physicians may be important in relieving acute pain. We aimed to assess the knowledge, to determine the attitudes and practices of physicians in the management of pain in EDs of Cameroon.

Methods

We carried out a prospective cross-sectional study over 4 months in the year 2018. We enrolled all consenting physicians who were neither emergency medicine doctors nor anesthesiologists working at the EDs of five tertiary hospitals of Cameroon. Using a validated and pretested structured questionnaire, data on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of acute pain management at the ED by these clinicians were studied. We used an externally validated score to assess the knowledge as either poor, insufficient, moderate or good.

Results

A total of 58 physicians were included; 18 interns or residents and 39 general practitioners. Their mean age was 28.6?±?3?years and their average number of years of practice was 2.9?years. The level of knowledge was rated "poor" in 77.6% of physicians. Being a general practitioner was significantly associated with a poor level of knowledge (p?=?0.02; OR?=?5.1). We found a negative and significant correlation between knowledge and years of practice (p?=?0.04; r2?=?0.06). More than three-quarter (82.8%) of participants used a pain scale to evaluate the severity of pain. The most used scale was the Visual Analog Scale (56.9%). The most frequently used analgesic was paracetamol (98.3%), although only 3.5% of physicians correctly knew its half-life, delay of onset of action and duration of action.

Conclusion

These findings suggest that physicians in EDs of Cameroon have poor knowledge and suboptimal practices in pain management. General practice and a greater number of professional experience seemed to favour these attitudes. Overall, there is an urgent need for refresher courses in acute pain management for physicians working in these resource-limited EDs.

SUBMITTER: Etoundi PO

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6688326 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Cameroonian physicians with regards to acute pain management in the emergency department: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

Etoundi Paul Owono PO Mbengono Junette Arlette Metogo JAM Ntock Ferdinand Ndom FN Tochie Joel Noutakdie JN Ndom Dominique Christelle Anaba DCA Angong Francky Teddy Endomba FTE Beyiha Gérard G Minkande Jacqueline Ze JZ

BMC emergency medicine 20190808 1

<h4>Introduction</h4>Pain is the most frequent presenting complaint in patients consulting or admitted to the emergency department (ED). Thus, its acute management is often done by physicians working in the ED. These clinicians are often general practitioners and not emergency medicine physicians in resource-poor settings. Hence, a mastery of pain management by these physicians may be important in relieving acute pain. We aimed to assess the knowledge, to determine the attitudes and practices of ...[more]

PMID: 31395007

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Project description:BackgroundBetween the need for transparency in healthcare, widely promoted by patient's safety campaigns, and the fear of negative consequences and malpractice threats, physicians face challenging decisions on whether or not disclosing medical errors to patients and families is a valid option. We aim to assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) of physicians in our center regarding medical error disclosure.MethodsThis is a cross-sectional self-administered questionnaire study. The questionnaire was piloted and no major modifications were made. A day-long training workshop consisting of didactic lectures, short and long case scenarios with role playing and feedback from the instructors, were conducted. Physicians who attended these training workshops were invited to complete the questionnaire at the end of the training, and physicians who did not attend any training were sent a copy of the questionnaire to their offices to complete. To assure anonymity and transparency of responses, we did not query names or departments. Descriptive statistics were used to present demographics and KAP. The differences between response\s of physicians who received the training and those who did not were analyzed with t-test and descriptive statistics. The 0.05 level of significance was used as a cutoff measure for statistical significance.ResultsEighty-eight physicians completed the questionnaire (55 attended training (62.50%), and 33 did not (37.50%)). Sixty Five percent of physicians were males and the mean number of years of experience was 16.5 years. Eighty-Seven percent (n = 73) of physicians were more likely to report major harm, compared to minor harm or no harm. Physicians who attended the workshop were more knowledgeable of articles of Jordan's Law on Medical and Health Liability (66.7% vs 45.5%, p-value = 0.017) and the Law was more likely to affect their decision on error disclosure (61.8% vs 36.4%, p-value = 0.024).ConclusionFormal training workshops on disclosing medical errors have the power to positively influence physicians' KAP toward disclosing medical errors to patients and possibly promoting a culture of transparency in the health care system.

Dataset Information

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Cameroonian physicians with regards to acute pain management in the emergency department: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

Introduction

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Cameroonian physicians with regards to acute pain management in the emergency department: a multicenter cross-sectional study.

Similar Datasets

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