PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the knowledge and attitudes of oncology ward nurses toward cancer pain management and to find ways to improve the educational program for nurses. METHOD: A total of 209 nurses working at the oncology ward of three hospitals in Seoul and a Gyenggi Province. The survey instrument used was the 32-item scale for evaluating nurses knowledge and attitudes originally developed by McCaffery and Ferrell'(1990), that was by Kim'(1997). RESULTS: In terms of the nurses knowledge of pain management, the result showed that the nurses scored an average of 67.8 out of 100 for phamacokinetics of opioids, 84.8 for classification of analgesics, 60.1 for pain assessment, and 70.7 for drug administration. 18.2% of the nurses hesitate to inject the narcotic agent because of concerns regarding the drug's potential side effects. there was significant difference in the knowledge of pain management according to the general characteristics of pain in terms of the nurses age(p=.001), position (p=.016), years of experiences(p=.002), experience of cancer pain education(p=.001). CONCLUSION: The also showed that nurses working at cancer ward lack knowledge. It is important to provide intensive education to nurses about cancer pain management.

PURPOSE
This study was conducted to examine the nurses' knowledge about and attitude toward cancer pain management.
METHOD
Study subjects of this retrospective cross-sectional survey study were 343 nurses sampled conveniently in a tertiary teaching hospital in Seoul. Seven measurement tools were used to collect data on demographic data, knowledge about and attitude toward cancer pain management, barrier to cancer pain management, knowledge about and concerns for the opioid use, and professional education of cancer pain management.
RESULT
Nurses showed knowledge deficit when their knowledge on the cancer pain management and the opiod use was evaluated using two case scenarios and the 15-item questionnaire respectively. Ninety-five percent of the nurses believed that cancer pain management is a major problem. However, inadequate staff knowledge of pain management was rated as the single most important barrier to adequate pain management by 20.4% of nurses. Only 10.9% and 23.2% of the nurses replied that nursing school's education and professional education in cancer pain management respectively, were adequate.
CONCLUSION
This study confirms the existence of knowledge deficits and attitudinal barriers among Korean nurses that can impede cancer pain manage- ment. This study suggests a need for professional education for nurses on cancer pain management.

The purpose of this study was to identify pain management done by nurses and to develop an educational program for pain management, and also to evaluate the effects of education on the knowledge, attitudes, nurses and on the pain control practice of nurses. The first stage of this study was to identify the process of pain management in cancer units. A focus group interview using 15 nurses who were working in cancer units was conducted for the purpose of convenience sampling. The focus group interview results indicated that pain assessment wasn`t completed systematically, and was mainly dependent on the verbal complaints of patients or caregivers. The educational contents of the nurses were identified. The 2nd stage of this study was to develop a pain education program and to test its effect on nurses. A One Group pre-test/post-test design was utilized. The educational program(6 hours) consisted of: 1) Myths about pain, 2) Pain assessment, 3) Pain management with medications, pharmacological mechanism, 4) Pain management with noninvasive methods, and 5) Questions and discussion. The testing instrument was modified from the nurses' Knowledge and Attitudes Survey Regarding Pain(Ferrell and McCaffery, 1996) and face validity was completed by the nursing faculty and a pain clinic physician, and reliability testing was done for 80 RN-BSN students. The purposive convenience sample of 40 nurses participated in the study. Attitudes and Knowledge changes were measured 2 weeks prior to education and 4 weeks after the education. Ad hoc testing was done 8 weeks after the education with the review of 89 patients' charts. 1. The result were statistically significant on knowledge and changes in attitudes in pain management (t=-4.079, p<0.001). 2. The contents of 89 nursing records were analyzed and it was found that there were great changes in the pain description The assessment of pain severity was measured using VAS. Recommendations for further study are as follows: 1. Continuous pain education for nurses, physicians and students of the health professions is recommended. 2. There is a great need to develop a program for resolving decisional conflicts experienced by nurses in the pain management process.