Pain

From NursingWiki

pain management

Pain management is the right of every person. There are enough different medications that no one should suffer from pain. Some of the barriers to pain mangement from the patient are:

I don't want to become addicted, I'm saving the strong stuff until I need it. I don't want my wife or husbanfd to think I am weak and can't stand a little pain. Nobody believes me when I tell them how bad my pain is, etc.

Some barriers from nurses are:

He doesn't look like he is in pain. He has not been diagnosed with any disease that would explain his pain, so he can't be hurting. I don't have time to ask all those pain assessment questions, if he or she is hurting they will tell me. If they are hurting bad enough, they will ask for pain medicine.

Physicians often are afraid of coming under regulatory examination if they prescribe the amount of drugs needed to control pain. The public must be educated on the types of pain, the characteristics of different type pain, and how to be assertive when their pain is not controlled. Until citizens assert their right to pain relief, the physicians will continue to undertreat pain, especially in children and elderly. It is estimated that 84% of elderly citizens living in a nurisng home are in significant pain all the time. There is a national pain institute that works with legislators trying to get laws passed that support the appropriate treatment of pain. Many state have state pain initiatives also. Every nurse and health care provider should join these initiatives to help eliminate the barriers and lack of knowledge that leads to people suffering from pain.

The adverse effects of medicating patients with the addictive agents with goal of having the highest relief from pain may cause addiction. The in-patient psychiatric unit that I work on has continually growing opiate addicted patients that are being admitted for detox due to heavy Vicodin, Norco, and Oxycontin abuse.