Current Clinical Opinions, Attitudes and Awareness of Interns Regarding Post-operative and Cancer Pain Management in A Tertiary Care Centre

AIM: This prospective study was aimed to assess the opinion, awareness and attitude of interns regarding pain assessment, pain management and common barriers in effective pain therapy for patients experiencing pain. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire including demographic details, knowledge of the tools of pain assessment, choice of drugs used, side effects, lacunae in existing knowledge and barriers in pain management was designed. A total of 160 interns were approached, out of which 149 returned the completed questionnaire. Only a few of them had a chance exposure to cancer pain management but none of them had undergone any formal training, teaching or classes in this field. RESULTS: Most respondents knew that the pain can be measured and the ways to do it. A significant number considered morphine as the preferred drug for managing cancer pain and thought morphine is responsible for addiction and respiratory depression. About 72% interns knew about transdermal preparation of fentanyl and its usage in malignancy but only a few were aware of buprenorphine transdermal patch. Though they were enthusiastic about relieving the cancer patients from suffering, they had limited knowledge of how to achieve this. The common barriers identified by them were lack of adequate knowledge and training and limited availability of opioids. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study emphasize the need of special training programs pain management in order to change the current prevailing situation and improve the quality of analgesia provided to the patients.