Pain Management
While there are many healthcare problems that can be discussed I chose to discuss the problem of management of acute and chronic pain. The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects proper pain management on nursing practice, population most effected by chronic and acute pain, ways to improve pain management from a nursing perspective.
Practice Setting Problem The proper managing of acute and chronic pain is a hot topic in the field of nursing. The poor management of pain by nursing is well a documented problem. Of the five vital signs pain is the most subjective of them all. It is one vital sign that cannot be measured by any machine only the patient knows his or her level of pain. In nursing school assessment courses nurses are taught that the pain level is what the patient says it is and should be treated accordingly. Treating a patient pain level according to what the patient states is his or her pain levels is not always a common practice.
Importance of the Clinical Problem and its Significance to Nursing Practice As a nurse there is an obligation to patients to advocate on there behalf. According to the American Nurses Associations (ANA) position statement on Pain Management and Control of Distressing Symptoms in Dying Patients it’s the nurses obligation to his or her patient to administer effective doses of prescribed medications for symptom control. ANA also states nurses have a moral obligation to advocate on a patients behalf when the pain management regime prescribed is not effective. The textbook tells us that BSN prepared RN are much better prepared to implement Evidence Based Practice (EBP) than an ADN prepared nurse (Brown, 2012). The use of EBP requires nurses to review research, implement and evaluate outcome. ADN nurses are traditional taught more of the clinical aspect of nursing while in school where as BSN nurses have EBP incorporated into their nursing curriculum. The exposure to EBP for BSN prepared RN’s early on in
Practice Setting Problem The proper managing of acute and chronic pain is a hot topic in the field of nursing. The poor management of pain by nursing is well a documented problem. Of the five vital signs pain is the most subjective of them all. It is one vital sign that cannot be measured by any machine only the patient knows his or her level of pain. In nursing school assessment courses nurses are taught that the pain level is what the patient says it is and should be treated accordingly. Treating a patient pain level according to what the patient states is his or her pain levels is not always a common practice.
Importance of the Clinical Problem and its Significance to Nursing Practice As a nurse there is an obligation to patients to advocate on there behalf. According to the American Nurses Associations (ANA) position statement on Pain Management and Control of Distressing Symptoms in Dying Patients it’s the nurses obligation to his or her patient to administer effective doses of prescribed medications for symptom control. ANA also states nurses have a moral obligation to advocate on a patients behalf when the pain management regime prescribed is not effective. The textbook tells us that BSN prepared RN are much better prepared to implement Evidence Based Practice (EBP) than an ADN prepared nurse (Brown, 2012). The use of EBP requires nurses to review research, implement and evaluate outcome. ADN nurses are traditional taught more of the clinical aspect of nursing while in school where as BSN nurses have EBP incorporated into their nursing curriculum. The exposure to EBP for BSN prepared RN’s early on in