Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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The high prevalence of inadequately managed chronic pain indicates the need for alternative and multimodal treatment options. Use of cannabinoids in medicine is becoming a growing area of interest, specifically in the context of chronic pain. The efficacy of cannabinoids for the treatment of chronic pain is not well established. ⋯ Evidence on the efficacy of cannabinoids for chronic pain shows patient-perceived benefit but inconsistent other treatment effects. These findings indicate cannabinoids may have a modest analgesic effect for chronic neuropathic pain conditions, and that the use of cannabinoids is relatively safe, with few severe adverse events. This review concludes that cannabinoids may have a potential role in chronic pain management. Inconsistent evidence on the efficacy of cannabis to treat chronic pain indicates the need for more studies on a larger scale. Clinicians should draw on available evidence and consider cannabinoids as a potential approach to chronic pain management.
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Little is known about the relevance of existing pain scales for patients with limited English proficiency (LEP). ⋯ The Wong-Baker Faces could be appropriate for older Hmong. Further validity and reliability studies are needed for the Wong-Baker Faces.
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Effective pain management is closely related to the prognosis of patients after surgery. Setting up acute pain service is among the effective strategies to control pain. The operation of acute pain service is mostly dominated by anesthesiologists; however, control of postsurgical pain is still unsatisfactory. Nurses are the main force for providing postoperative care of patients, and their role in acute pain service is crucial. Therefore, in the current study, we have developed a nurse-led pain relief model that emphasizes the central role of nurses during the entire surgical procedure. However, the effect of using this model for pain management among abdominal surgical patients remains unknown. ⋯ Our study demonstrated that a nurse-led pain relief model can enhance the quality of acute pain management among post-abdominal surgical patients, suggesting that such a model can be an effective intervention for providing a better pain control among postsurgical patients.