Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses
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Nearly half of hospitalized patients in the United States have reported experiencing pain even while undergoing treatment for pain. Analgesic use is the most common type of treatment for pain management. Many patients who experience pain seek nonpharmacologic interventions to manage their pain, including forms of complementary or alternative medicine such as auricular acupressure (AA). ⋯ The nursing implications based on this review is that education about AA and complementary or alternative medicine therapies for health care providers may assist them in providing pain control for their patients. In addition, we need to continue research to build on evidence on the effect of AA on pain management.
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Pain can negatively affect the inpatient hospitalization experience; however, in patients with compromised metabolic pathways who are more vulnerable to medication side effects, pain control becomes even more challenging. ⋯ Findings from this evidence-based practice quality improvement project provide support for the effectiveness of music therapy as an adjunct to traditional pharmacologic modalities for pain management of the end-stage liver disease patient population.
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Pain is one of the most feared of all symptoms for the cancer patient. Some studies estimate that up to 90% of all cancer patients experience pain. Advances in pharmaceuticals and expert provider knowledge have improved pain management overall for the patient with cancer; however, complementary therapies can synergize medications to provide optimal pain relief while decreasing the side effect profile. Despite this, nurses may have limited access to such resources. Many therapies can be administered directly by the bedside/chairside nurse with minimal training and the nurse can then teach the patient and family how to use the selected complementary therapy after leaving the hospital or clinic. ⋯ Comfort kits allow nurses easy access to inexpensive tools to supplement pharmaceutical pain management. Optimizing nonpharmacologic pain management can increase patient and nurse satisfaction, improve overall pain management, and decrease untoward side effects.
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Review
Pain Management Issues as Part of the Comprehensive Care of Patients with Sickle Cell Disease.
Vaso-occlusive pain crisis is one of the primary complications of sickle cell disease (SCD) and is responsible for the majority of hospital visits in patients with SCD. Stints of severe pain can last for hours to days and are difficult to treat and manage, often resulting in drastically reduced quality of life. ⋯ Providing more appropriate medication and optimal dosage based on individual's genomic variations is the future of medicine, and this will allow the physicians to hone in on optimal pain management in patients with SCD.
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Aims of Investigation: Obesity and persistent pain are public health concerns with associated high costs. Evidence supports an increased risk for reports of persistent pain among adults who are above the recommended body mass index level. ⋯ Even less is known about how overweight status that does not reach the level of obesity is related to pain. Thus, the aim driving this review was to calculate the risk and odds ratios of chronic pain among adults with an overweight body mass index.