erspective of Neuman's Health Care Systems Model is appropriate. The objective a pain management program based on this theoretical perspective is to strengthen a patient's emotional ability to cope with her or his problems, while using direct nursing intervention to improve the patient's physical condition. This approach calls for a separate pain management plan to be developed for each patient, with an emphasis on personalized and compassionate care.
In Neuman's (1990, pp. 129-135) Health Care Systems Model, the survival structure for the patient is the combination of all of the variables applicable to the survival of any human plus the survival variables that are unique to each individual person. In the Health Care systems Model, the process of interaction of matter, energy, and information, system input and output, system feedback, negentropy (energy absorption), entropy (energy depletion), and stability function as a single process. Matter, energy, and information are exchanged by a system and its environment through a process of inputs, outputs, and feedback. In the functioning of this process, energy is both absorbed and depleted. The goal is an equalization of energy gain and loss at a desired level, as a means of maintaining stability.
Recognition of the inadequacy of traditional pain management has prompted recent corrective efforts from a variety of health care disciplines including surgery, anesthesiology, nursing, and pain management groups (Snyder, Kaempfer, & Ries, 1996, p. 72). The challenge for clinicians is to balance pain control with concern for patient safety and side effects of pain treatments.
Some types of pain do not respond well to opioid analgesics. These types of pain, however, often can be controlled with procedures designed to interrupt the pain messages the nerves send to the brain (Schwab & Bartholdi, 1996, p. 324). These advanced pain management procedures include nerve blocks and ep...