Pain Flashcards
A nurse is caring for a postoperative client who states that he is worried about being discharged after surgery because he has no place to live. Describe how the biophysical model of pain, particularly the social factors, contributes to this client’s experience of pain. (Enter your response and submit to compare to an expert’s response.)
The client is expressing concern that he has nowhere to live upon discharge. According to the biophysical model of pain, the client likely does not have anyone to care for him after discharge and may lack a social support system, which can lead to increased anxiety and perception of pain. Economic factors that may affect the client include that, if the client has no home, the client may not be employed, have insurance, or be able to pay for follow-up care, prescriptions, supplies, or therapies. These concerns can contribute to an increase in the client’s pain level and response to stimuli.
List facts you have learned about age-related considerations and pain management. (Enter your response and submit to compare to an expert’s response.)
Clients in their 30s, 40s, and 50s have more complaints of headaches, abdominal and back pain, and temporomandibular problems than any other age group. As age increases, pain seems to increase for neuropathic conditions, as well as for joint pain and pain in the lower extremities. Many clients live with more than one chronic condition and experience pain on a daily basis. Pain tolerance does not change significantly as a person ages. Older adult clients who have cognitive impairment and/or communication challenges (e.g., expressive aphasia) require careful nursing assessment. These clients may not report pain effectively, so the nurse should look for behaviors that suggest pain is present.
A nurse is discussing the challenges of assessing pain in children with a group of parents. Which of the following statements should the nurse include?
Children may deny pain to avoid IM injection or bad tasting oral medicine.
You answered correctly. Children may deny pain when the nurse asks. They fear injections and don’t want to take bad tasting medications. They may fear that this will happen due to previous experiences when they were sick or hurting or in the hospital. The child’s parent can actually help determine if the child is crying due to pain or because of another reason. Children as young as 3 years of age, such as the child in the video, can accurately point to the pain. Although they may not be able to describe in words the location or type/quality of the pain, they can communicate if asked to point to the pain. Children do have the nerve receptors at birth to be able to experience pain.
A nurse is caring for a client who has a range order of hydromorphone 1 to 3 mg IV q4H prn pain score 7 to 10. The client receives 1 mg of hydromorphone at 0900 hours and is still experiencing pain of 10 on a 0 to 10 scale; the client then receives another 1 mg of hydromorphone at 0925 hours. The client reports pain of 7 on a 0 to 10 scale after this administration. If the client needs another dose of hydromorphone, at what time could the client receive a 2 mg dose?
1325 hours or 1:25 p.m.
The reason for this is that the limit of the amount of hydromorphone they can receive is 3 mg, and the client received 2 mg of hydromorphone spaced out between 15 minutes. They cannot receive an additional dose of 2 mg of hydromorphone because that would put them at 4 mg. They have to wait until 1:25pm to get another 2 mg dose of hydromorphone.
Nociceptive pain
Pain that is felt in a tissue, an organ, or a damaged part of the body, or as referred pain
Neuropathic Pain
Nerve pain that arises from the somatosensory system
The four ethical principles related to pain management
Beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, justice
Five pain scales
Numeric Rating scale, Visual analog scale, Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale, nonverbal pain scale (NVPS), CRIES
