Effect of web-based pediatric pain management education on nursing student knowledge levels

Introduction and aim. Pain is a common symptom in children. Studies indicate that nurses and student nurses lack knowledge about pediatric pain. This study was designed to determine the level of knowledge of pediatric pain management for nursing students and to evaluate the effectiveness of the web-based pediatric pain management education (PPME) program. Material and methods. This study used a pre/post-test quasi-experimental design before/after the test. It was carried out with 84 pediatric nursing internship students (39 control, 45 intervention) in a nursing school. The control group received routine training, and the intervention group received web-based modules. Data were collected using the questionnaire developed by the researchers and evaluated using the paired sample t-test, independent samples t-test, Spearman’s correlation and regression analysis. A structural equation model (SEM) was used. Results. The level of knowledge of the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group in terms of the total score and sub-dimension scores of awareness, physiopathology and ‘control’ (p<0.05). A moderate, positive and significant correlation was observed between PPME and knowledge levels. Web-based education accounted for 56.6% of the in crease in knowledge level, resulting in an improvement of 11.062 points. A notable positive correlation was observed between PPME and control scores in SEM. Conclusion. The conclusion drawn is that the web-based PPME effectively increased student knowledge scores.