Educational intervention for obstetrical nurses: introducing intravenous fentanyl to the labour floor.

Objective: To determine the efficacy of an educational intervention in changing nurses' satisfaction and comfort with and their knowledge and use of a newly introduced analgesic agent, fentanyl, to manage pain during labour.

Methods: A written survey was completed by 19 labour and delivery nurses before and after the educational intervention in a small Northern Canadian city.

Results: Prior to the educational intervention, respondents rated their knowledge of and comfort with use of morphine and meperidine as significantly greater than their knowledge of and comfort with use of fentanyl (P<0.