pain Flashcards
pain
- Pain is subjective
- Pain is caused when a stimulus causes electrical impulses to travel from the periphery to the spinal cord. If the tissue is injured, it can
also release chemicals that excite or activate the nerve endings, causing pain
pain threshold versus pain tolerance
● Both are subjective concepts
● Threshold = the point at which someone actually feels pain
● Tolerance = how much pain someone is willing and able to endure
- PQRST mnemonic to assess
- Precipitating factors
- What triggers the pain or makes it worse?
- Quality
- What does the pain feel like? (descriptive characteristics)
- Region
- Where is the pain located? Does it radiate or spread?
- Severity
- What would you rate your pain 0-10? 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst you’ve
ever had.
- What would you rate your pain 0-10? 0 being no pain and 10 being the worst you’ve
- Timing
- How long have you been experiencing this pain? Have you experienced this before?
subjective indicators of pain
- The nurse uses subjective indicators to assess the client’s pain by asking
questions about the characteristics of the pain.- Location
- Duration
- Quantity
- Quality
- Chronology
- Aggravating Factors
- Relieving Factors
- Associated Phenomenon
- Anything the patient reports that can’t be measured is subjective
objective indicators of pain
- Vital signs initially showing an elevation in blood pressure, heart rate, and respiration
- Muscle tension or rigidity
- Pallor
- When pain becomes more severe, there is a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate
- Nausea and vomiting
- Fainting
- Withdrawal to pain
- Grimacing
- Restlessness
- Guarding the area of pain
numeric pain scale
- The numeric scale involves a pain rating from 0-10.
- The client is asked to rate the pain on a scale of 0 -10.
- Slight pain is described as between 1 and 3.
- Moderate pain is between 4 and 7.
- Severe pain is between 8 and 10.
visual analog scale
a visual analog scale is one where you can see a number line ranging from 1 to 10 where the client can then rate their pain
Wong-Baker FACES
- Involves six faces with different
expressions. - The scale is rated “0” with a smiling face and no hurt, “2” hurts a little bit, “4” hurts a little more, “6” hurts even more, “8” hurts a whole lot, and “10” is a crying face and hurts worst.
FLACC scale
face
legs
activity
cry
consolability
- each of these range from 0-2 for a score range from 0-10. has to do with the condition of each of these parts
CRIES scale
Crying
Requires O2
Increased vital signs
expression
sleeplessness
- all of these go from nothing showing, to inconsolable or bad
verbal pain scale
face
activity
guarding
physiologic (vital signs)
respiratory
- all values go from baseline or normal, to being bad
influencing factors of pain
- There are specific factors that affect a client’s perception of pain:
- cultural, ethnic, and religious beliefs
- family
- support systems
- gender
- age
- environment
- past experiences with pain
- anxiety; and other stressors.
pharmacologic pain interventions
- Positioning
- Cutaneous Stimulation
- Heat/Cold Therapy
- Touch
- Massage
- Acupuncture
- Hypnosis
- Acupressure
- Electronic Stimulating Unit
- Distraction
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapies
opioids or narcotic analgesics
- considered first-line treatment for moderate to severe pain
- includes all controlled substances (morphine, codeine, oxycodone, hydromorphone, methadone, meperidine)
nonopioid
- available over the counter; includes acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
