Abstract / Summary
Abstract Background To identify knowledge gaps regarding pediatric pain management among multidisciplinary healthcare professionals in a French general hospital and to identify priorities for future educational interventions. Methods We conducted a prospective, monocentric, cross-sectional survey among healthcare professionals involved in pediatric care. A structured questionnaire assessed knowledge of EMLA, MEOPA, analgesic pharmacology, and morphine, as well as reported pain-assessment practices. Thirty-one knowledge items were combined into a preliminary Pediatric Pain Management Knowledge Score (PPKMS), calculated as the proportion of correct responses at the aggregate level. Exploratory comparisons according to professional category were performed using Pearson's chi-square or Fisher's exact tests, with odds ratios (ORs). Results Seventy-three questionnaires were included: 39 nurses, 17 nursing assistants, and 17 physicians. Across the 31 knowledge items, 1,167 of 2,263 possible responses were correct, corresponding to an overall aggregate PPKMS of 51.6%. Knowledge varied substantially across domains, with the highest scores for EMLA (59.2%) and MEOPA (55.9%), followed by analgesic pharmacology (46.2%), while morphine-related knowledge was the weakest domain (31.8%). Overall PPKMS scores were relatively similar among nurses (51.5%), nursing assistants (49.7%), and physicians (53.5%), but domain-specific knowledge profiles differed substantially. Conclusions Multidisciplinary healthcare professionals demonstrated substantial and heterogeneous knowledge gaps in pediatric pain management, with particularly pronounced deficiencies in morphine-related knowledge. These findings support targeted, role-specific multidisciplinary education combined with standardized clinical protocols and systematic pain assessment and reassessment. Larger multicenter studies using validated instruments and individual-level data are warranted to confirm these findings and evaluate whether educational interventions translate into improved clinical practice.