Can a theory-based educational intervention change nurses’ knowledge and attitudes concerning cancer pain management? A quasi-experimental design

Table 1 Characteristics of the two groups of participating RNs (n = 40) at T1

	Intervention ward	Control ward	p-value
RNs (n)	25	15
Gender Female (%)	100	100
Age (mean/SD)	38.0 (±12.0)	36.8 (±9.6)	0.751²
<30 years (%)	32	20
30-39 years	36	40
≥40 years	32	40
Working experience (mean/SD)	10.2 (±12.4)	9.4 (±7.5)	0.815²
<5 years (%)	44	27
5-10 years	28	40
>10 years	28	33
Educational level (%)			0.008³
Diploma	24	33
Degree	76	67
Pain education (%)			0.493³
Pain course, 15 ETCS	12	20
Primary outcome, NKAS ¹ (Correct answer scores/SD)	25.5 (±4.3)	26.2 (±2.9)	0.795²

¹ The internal dropout for NKAS at T1 was three respondents from the intervention ward and five respondents from the control ward.
² The Mann–Whitney U-Test was used to compare mean scores with regard to age, working experience and the NKAS between the intervention ward and the control ward.
³ The Chi-squared test was used to analyse categorical data, i.e. education level and pain education.

ISSN: 1472-6963