Nursing times
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Pain is one of the most complex human experiences. Nurses have a moral, ethical, humanitarian and professional responsibility to provide an adequate standard of pain assessment and documentation. In order to obtain an accurate pain assessment from patients, they need to feel that their expression of pain will be listened to, accepted and acted on. It is therefore vital that nurses are educated in the process of pain assessment.
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Rosie Purves, a black nurse who was prevented from looking after a white baby, won a racial discrimination claim against her employer in May this year. Ms Purves was awarded pounds sterling 20,000--the highest payout possible for her type of claim--after an employment tribunal ruled that Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust was 'effectively silent and complicit' in the racist demands made by a woman who did not want her baby treated by black staff. Here Ms Purves tells Nursing Times her harrowing story of how for seven years she suffered this abuse in silence.
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Nurses play an essential role in preparing patients for surgical procedures, whether the operation is planned or an emergency. Part of this preparation may include administration of premedication. ⋯ This article looks at why pharmacological intervention is no longer a routine preoperative preparation. It will discuss drugs that are used to aid anaesthesia and those used as prophylaxis to aid postoperative recovery, consider the ways in which premedication can now include psychological interventions, and look at the nurse's role.