Nursing students' pain beliefs and methods of coping with pain

Aim: This study aims to determine the nursing students' beliefs and methods used to cope with pain. Material and Method: This descriptive research was conducted at the Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Faculty of Health Sciences Department of Nursing between December 2019 and April 2020. Totally 472 students constituted the universe of the research. In the study, it was aimed to reach the entire universe, but 80% of the universe constituted the sample with 380 students who agreed to participate in the research. In the collection of the data, Student Introductory Form, Pain Definition & Coping Methods Form and Pain Beliefs Questionnaire were used. The data were collected by the researcher using the questionnaire method during the course hours every weekday at the institution where the research was conducted. Descriptive statistics, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), t test, Kruskal Wallis H test, LSD Post Hoc test, Mann Whitney U tests were used to evaluate the data. Results: In the study, it was determined that nursing students' pain beliefs were affected by parameters such as gender, class, average income status, pain threshold and pain intensity. It was found that the mean scores of the psychological beliefs sub-dimension (4.97±0.86) of the students who used non-pharmacological methods to cope with pain were higher than the mean scores of the organic beliefs sub-dimension (3.90±0.71) and the difference was statistically significant (p= 0.001). Conclusion: As a result of this study, it was determined that nursing students who had high average scores on the sub-dimension of psychological beliefs preferred non-pharmacological methods to cope with pain. Keywords: Pain, Coping with pain, Pain beliefs, Nursing students.