Pain Manag Nurs . 2026 Feb Nursing Students' Pain Management Knowledge and Attitudes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes global research to evaluate how effectively nursing students understand and approach pain management. By analyzing data from thousands of students across multiple countries, the study reveals a concerning deficiency in professional readiness, noting that participants correctly answered less than half of the assessment questions on average. While students showed relative strength in understanding the spiritual and physical aspects of suffering, they struggled significantly with clinical interventions and the complexities of patient addiction. Ultimately, the findings serve as a call to action for educators to implement standardized, evidence-based curricula that bridge these critical knowledge gaps and improve the quality of patient care worldwide.