Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Observational Study
Behavioral and Physiological Pain Responses in Brain-Injured Patients Who Are Unable to Communicate in the Intensive Care Unit.
Assessing pain of critically ill patients with brain injuries who are unable to communicate is a challenge. Current behavioral scales are limited in accurate pain assessments for this population. ⋯ The findings can be used as a basis for pain assessment and the development of pain assessment tools for brain-injured patients who are unable to communicate. However, since physiological responses may be influenced by various factors besides pain, physiological changes may be used as a sign of the need for pain assessment rather than being used alone as a basis for pain assessment.
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Those with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) often experience pain and symptoms long after their initial injury. A gap in current knowledge is how persons would prefer to monitor and manage these symptoms following mTBI. ⋯ Patients are interested in using technology to help with self-management of their pain and symptoms following mTBI. Tools that help patients with self-management should integrate into health systems and provide ways to effectively interact with providers during the most vulnerable phases of recovery.
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Untreated pain in people with Alzheimer's disease continues to be a serious public health problem. Pain is a subjective and complex experience that becomes increasingly challenging to assess as cognition declines. Our understanding of pain processing is incomplete, particularly for special populations such as people living with Alzheimer's disease, and especially in the advanced stages of the disease. ⋯ There is a need for new, widespread policies, guidelines, and definitions to help clinicians adequately manage pain in people with Alzheimer's disease. These will need to hinge on continued research because it remains unclear how Alzheimer's disease impacts central pain processing, pain expression, and communication of pain. In the meantime, policies and guidelines need to highlight current best practices as well as the fact that pain continues in Alzheimer's disease.
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Nursing brings a unique lens to care of patients with pain and opioid misuse. ⋯ This scoping review indicates the importance of continued support from key stakeholders, including training and interprofessional collaboration opportunities supported by the National Institutes of Health, to sustain nursing's contribution to quality care of patients with pain and opioid misuse. Ultimately, all health care professionals must collaborate to conduct rigorous research and construct evidence-based guidelines to inform policy initiatives and education strategies to solve the complex co-occurring epidemics of pain and opioid misuse.