Advanced Pain Management & Acute Care Nursing

Conventional post-operative pain management protocols and practices rely heavily on nurse-administered opioids, patient-controlled analgesia (PCA), and skin patches ("Pain relief," 1997, p. 4). Opioid analgesics include codeine, morphine, and other narcotics. PCA pumps allow a patient to administer her or his own medication. A portable, computerized pump containing medicine is attached to a small needle placed in a vein or under the skin. When a patient feels pain, the patient presses a button on the pump that delivers a preset, safe dose of medication. Skin patches release a steady dose of medication into the skin over days, with no need for frequent dosing. After applying the patch there is a lag time of about twelve hours before pain relief begins. Subsequent to that time, the level of medication in the bloodstream remains constant.

The obligation to manage pain and relieve a patient's suffering is an important part of a health professional's commitment. The importance of pain management is enhanced when other important benefits for the patient are realized in concert with the relief from pain. Such other benefits include earlier mobilization, shortened hospital stay, and reduced costs. Nevertheless, clinical surveys continue to find that conventional post-operative pain management protocols and practices result in unrelieved pain due to ineffective treatment in approximately 50 percent of the app

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nyl dosage was maximized to 0.4mg. Pain control was still inadequate and the fentanyl infusion was changed to sufentanil titrated to 0.12 mg/hr with bupivacaine 0.5 percent in a volume of 7 ml/hr. The patient was discharged to home with this regimen, and remained with pain well controlled until he expired 18 days later (Manfredi, Chandler, Patt, & Payne, 1997, p. 120). Successful assessment and control of pain depends, in part, on establishing a positive relationship between health care professionals and patients. Patients should be informed that pain relief is an important part of their health care, that information about options to control pain is available to them, and that they are welcome to discuss their concerns and preferences with the health care team (Owen, Fibuch, McQuillan, & Millington, 1997, p. 8). Acute care nurses and other health professionals should discuss the patient's previous experiences with pain with the patient, as well as the patient's beliefs about and preferences for pain assessment and management. Nurses should provide the patient with information about pain management therapies that are available and the rationale underlying their use, and nurses and other health professionals should, in consu
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Implementation Proposal, Patt Payne, Statement Conventional, Kaempfer Ries, McQuillan Millington, Practice Research, Systems Model, Joyce Schade, Health Care, Rung Callesen, pain management, health care, advanced pain, advanced pain management, protocols practices, pain management protocols, management protocols, management protocols practices, unrelieved pain, experienced pain, post-operative pain, pain relief, systems model, journal clinical anesthesia, mcquillan millington 1997,
Approximate Word count = 2051
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)

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