الفهرس 
List of abbreviations
Nociception and PainOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Literature review cited that, pain in the adult critically ill patients is one of the most frequently encountered intermingling complicated conditions, especially one third of all patients in intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide are mechanically ventilated, that require prompt attention and management. As a result, the pain can be assessed and managed in effective manner with combination of pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. Education about pain assessment and management for critically ill patients will help in prevention of harmful effects of untreated pain. Nurses have primary role in promoting comfort and pain relief rather than any other health members. Thereby this study is aimed to evaluate the effect of implementing pain assessment and management protocol on nurses’ knowledge, performance, and critically ill patients’ outcomes. Materials and methods A pre- post quasi experimental design was utilized, study was conducted on 50 nurses who provide direct care for critically ill patients at Intensive Care Units (ICUs) of Emergency Hospital belonging Mansoura University Hospitals and 50 critically ill adult patients. Data were obtained using six tools; (two for nurses, and four for critically ill patients). The instructional protocol was designed based on an extensive revision of the related, recent literature. Pain assessment and management protocol was delivered throughout 8 weeks, each week involved 2 sessions. Results revealed that pain assessment and management protocol was effective on nurses’ knowledge and performance regarding pain assessment and management for critically ill patients, in addition to effective in decreasing pain score for critically ill patients. Conclusion critical care nurses were lacking knowledge and practice regarding pain assessment and management for critically ill patients. The simple designed protocol showed a positive effect in improving nurses’ knowledge, performance, and in decreasing pain score for critically ill patients. The study recommended that protocol should be printed and used in the unit as a reference guide for nurses, pain assessment scales should be available in a printed Arabic copy to be used by nurses. Continuous monitoring and evaluating nurses’ practice about pain assessment and management for critically ill patients should be considered, in addition to, the protocol could be implemented in another and different ICUs settings.