Assignments
1. Describe a clinical situation in which you were tasked to work with a patient that was experiencing pain. Briefly describe the situation (1-2 sentences) and tell us if there were any barriers present that prevented the patient from achieving pain relief (1 sentence). If you have not had experience with patients in pain, hypothesize what the situation might be like, from what you already know.
Currently, I work as a nurse on a medical/surgical floor for mainly neurosurgery patients, who deal with chronic pain daily. One of the cases I was involved in was a 40 year old female who had a cervical spine fusion of C4 through C7; in addition, she had a history of long term use of analgesics. I was advised in report this patient’s pain level is always 10 out of 10 on the pain scale regardless of administration of pain medications. One of the barriers present that prevented the patient from achieving pain relief was the analgesia regimen that the patient was receiving. The only pain medication prescribed at the time was Percocet (Acetaminophen and Oxycodone). After speaking with the patient to determine what she took at home to control her pain prior to surgery, I concluded the surgeon should have been contacted with a request to adjust the analgesic regimen. According to Arnstein (2010), once a patient‘s “chronic pain becomes established, analgesics typically lose some of their effectiveness, even at high doses” (p. 119).
2. In a separate paragraph (but in the same posting), describe your personal philosophy of pain management nursing. Use the information in the assigned readings to help develop your philosophy. Include your values and beliefs about pain and pain management. You may make this specific to the patient population you work with, or you can keep it more generic. Please respond substantively to one other classmate within this discussion topic. You may comment on the clinical situation they write about, their personal philosophy, or you...