Abstract Pain is a common event in many scenarios involving healthcare, from birth to death, in the hospital or outside of it. The overall purpose of this work was to critically review articles on types of pain and options employed in managing pain. Some electronic sources like google scholar, Ovid MEDLINE, PsychINFO, Embase were used to source for information. The articles were reviewed according to the various themes of the topic. From the different sources pain is categorized as acute or chronic with physical, psychological and social characteristics. Effective management of pain utilizes both pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapy. Pharmacological therapy employs non-opioids medications. Prolonged or unnecessary use of opioids causes some harmful side effects to the patient. Non-pharmacologic therapy plays a significant role and should be included in the multidisciplinary treatment plan. Nurses are members of the healthcare team who spend most of their time with patients as such they must work in collaboration with other health care professionals to facilitate patient’s recovery from pain. Healthcare professionals should also make use of internationally recognized guidelines during practice.

Abstract Pain is one of the most common and distressing symptoms experienced by cancer patients and can cause significant physical and psychological complications for patients and their families. Adequate pain management requires an understanding of pain, its assessment, and the use of analgesics according to the WHO analgesic ladder; information that is often lacking in routine medical education. Understanding the level of knowledge, attitudes and practices of clinicians who treat cancer pain can help us prepare relevant educational programs to address this need. A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted among randomly selected eligible clinical staff using self-administered questionnaires that contained close-ended and open-ended questions testing factual knowledge on pain, attitudes towards pain management, and practices related to pain management and opioid use. Results were analyzed using SPSS Version 28. Of 66 participants of this study, 78% were female and 65% were nurses. Only 10% had received any additional training in pain management. Knowledge on pain was found to be adequate in some areas, but deficient in others such as “types of pain” and “adjuvant drugs” (35% and 26% respectively). A significant proportion of responses (73%) showed incorrect attitudes towards pain and opioid use. Recommended practices such as prescribing laxatives with opioids were prevalent (72%), however using a tool to assess pain or the WHO ladder to prescribe analgesics was not as common. The results of this study show that despite being a key component of clinical care, pain management is not adequately understood by many clinicians. Gaps in knowledge, and incorrect attitudes could contribute to inadequate pain management for patients. This study provides valuable information for an educational workshop planned on pain management.