Milagros Tabije-Ebuen*

Approximately 70 percent of patients present to the emergency department with pain as their main presenting symptom or complaint. Unfortunately, studies show that about 60-80% of patients that are in pain are undertreated for multiple reasons. Pain is a very costly health issue to treat and manage. Indeed, in the United States, the annual cost to manage and treat pain is estimated to be $100 billion including the rising cost of health care, overuse of resources, lost income, and lost productivity. The purpose of this quantitative descriptive design project was to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes regarding pain by healthcare providers working in the emergency department (ED) and critical care services as a primary step to propose and develop educational and strategic management projects to achieve optimal results. A modified version of the Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain (KASRP) survey was used with permission and the response rate was 76%. Descriptive statistics and One-Way ANOVA were used to analyze and interpret the data. The findings indicated that there were no significant differences in the current level of knowledge and attitudes regarding pain between the ED and critical care healthcare providers. Additionally, there were no significant differences with regards to the total score of healthcare providers based on possession of board certification, number of years of experience, level of education, and specialty area. However, there was lack of knowledge surrounding pain medications since most of the pharmacological questions were answered incorrectly. These findings provided a guidance and insight to plan for educational and strategic management projects to address the needs of the patients experiencing pain.