The prevalence of pain in long term care is between 60-80%. Untreated pain can lead to a reduction in quality of life, poor sleep, decreased appetite, depression and poor wound healing. It is essential that nurses working in long-term care are knowledgeable and skilled at assessing and treating pain in older adults. Numerous study have shown that nurses knowledge is often suboptimal in acute and post-operative care. However information on nurses knowledge in long-term care is not so widely available. There is also a lack of information on nurses educational needs on this topic. Before an educational intervention is designed and implemented into practice it is firstly prudent to establish nurses current knowledge and future needs to providing quality pain management. it is against this background that the aim of the project is set. Data will be collected using a questionnaire from 50 nurses working in long-term care over a period of 2 weeks. The questionnaire will contain a number of knowledge questions regarding assessment of pain and the use of medications. Nurses will also be asked to state the area where they require most education. The results will be analysed and the findings will be used to inform the development of an education programme for nurses in long-term care, thus improving the care provided to older persons in long-term care.
