Week 1: Pain Assessment

Question 1

why is pain important?

Answer 1

• universal symptoms experienced by all at some point
• is the primary reason clients access health care in Canada
• have a profound impact on a clients function, quality of life, relationships, family structure, financial resources
• nurses most often asses and manage clients pain

Question 2

What is the definition of pain according to the international association for the study of pain?

Answer 2

is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual and potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such

Question 3

physiology of pain: how does it start?

Answer 3

Nociceptors

• which are PNS fibres that carry painful stimuli to the CNS

> located in various body tissues
activated by thermal, mechanical & chemical stimuli

Question 4

Physiology of pain flow chart

Answer 4

1.Impulse PNS
2. Spinal cord CNS
3. Pain may be blocked/allowed to continue
4.Thalamus
5.Limbic system (emotions to control pain produced here)
6.Cerebral cortex (pain recognized here)

Question 5

What are the 4 components of pain?
SECS

Answer 5

1. sensory/physical
   2.Emotional/affective
2. Cognitive
3. Social

Question 6

What component of pain is this: Action in pain nerves and effect on physiological status, severity

Answer 6

Sensory/physical

Question 7

What component of pain is this: How the pain makes us feel, fears, knowledge

Answer 7

Emotional/affective

Question 8

What component of pain is this: The effect of pain on behaviour, coping strategies, what does it mean

Answer 8

Cognitive

Question 9

What component of pain is this: Our behaviour, how we react and respond

Answer 9

Social

Question 10

What are the 4 different ways to classify pain?
DFFA

Answer 10

Duration
>Acute vs. Chronic

Frequency
>Continuous vs. Intermittent

Form
>Nociceptive vs. neuropathic

Associated with Cancer
>With cancer and/or with treatment for cancer
This actually gets its own class

Question 11

What are the types of pain? (NNVSCRP)

Answer 11

• Nociceptive
• Neuropathic pain (phantom limb pain)
• Visceral (organ)
• Somatic (felt pain)
• Cutaneous (superficial pain/skin)
• Referred (pain is felt in other parts of the body but originates somewhere else)
• Parietal (lining of the abdomen)

Question 12

ACUTE pain assessment: Red flags

Answer 12

Sudden onset is a red flag
>Explosive headache
>Painful breathing
>Chest pain
>Abdominal pain
>Severe pain unrelieved by appropriate medication

-New onset, undiscernible cause

Question 13

What to do in ACUTE pain assessment FIO

Answer 13

-Focused/emergent history
-Involve others, family/witnesses
-Observation of the patient & their behaviours

Question 14

What are the factors influencing pain (AGCSFTLCFP)

Answer 14

-Age
-Gender
-Culture
-Spiritual
-Family and social support
-The personal meaning of the pain
-Level of anxiety
-Coping style
-Fatigue
-Previous experiences of pain

Question 15

Effects of poorly managed pain?

Answer 15

-Reduced cognitive/mental function
-Sleeplessness, anxiety, fear
-High blood sugar (Hyperglycemia)
-Increased heart rate, increased cardiac output
-Decreased depth of respiration, decreased cough, sputum retention
-Decreased immune response
-Muscle spasm, immobility
-Decreased gastric and bowel motility
-Decreased urinary output
-Increased suffering for the client and loved ones
-Potential for development of chronic pain

OVERALL DECREASE IN QUALITY OF LIFE