Articles: pain-management-methods.
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The study was set in an Australian tertiary public hospital multidisciplinary pain center. ⋯ Changes to conceptual framework inevitably influence the practicalities of service delivery. The application of a whole-person model for persistent pain brought improved engagement with the individual in pain and more efficient delivery of care at a systems level.
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Anesthesiology clinics · Dec 2011
Sedation and weaning from mechanical ventilation: linking spontaneous awakening trials and spontaneous breathing trials to improve patient outcomes.
The use of sedation has long been integrated into critical care. Because pain, discomfort, anxiety, and agitation are commonly experienced by critically ill patients, the use of medications to alleviate and control these symptoms will continue; however, data showing that prolonged use of sedating medications imparts harm to patients obligate physicians to use agents and methods of sedation that minimize these negative side effects. ⋯ Regardless of choice of sedating agent, and even when patient-targeted sedation protocols are used to minimize oversedation, the use of spontaneous awakening trials dramatically improves patient outcomes for critically ill patients. Intensive care physicians must continue to study the delivery of sedation in efforts to maximize patient comfort while minimizing patient harm.
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The evolution of interventional pain management from inception through the present is examined. Increasing demand from patients, referring physicians and third party payors for proven interventions which provide long-term functional relief of symptoms or primary correction of common spinal pain syndromes is discussed. ⋯ Practitioners are encouraged to transition from the use of spinal injections and narcotics of unproven benefit to percutaneous and endoscopic spinal intervention as primary therapy of herniated lumbar disc, discogenic spinal pain, and lumbar spinal stenosis in appropriately selected patients. SD, Expenditures and health status among adults with back and neck problems.
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Nursing & health sciences · Dec 2011
Attitudes, beliefs, and practices of Sri Lankan nurses toward cancer pain management: an ethnographic study.
Cancer pain is a serious problem that requires specialized nursing knowledge. In the present ethnographic study, we sought to explore the experiences and cancer pain management practices of nurses working at a government hospital in Sri Lanka. Data were collected from October 2007 to January 2008, and were obtained by observing the nurses in a cancer ward, conducting semistructured interviews with 10 participants, and maintaining a research diary. ⋯ Additionally, the nurses are not autonomous, and are required to refer to medical staff for cancer pain management strategies. The nurses work in a task-oriented system that rarely acknowledges cancer patients' pain management needs. This study might improve nursing pain management practices for cancer patients and lead to changes in the curriculum of nursing courses in Sri Lanka.
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Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation is a non-medicated therapy with no side effects, compatible with other treatments and able to be used for an unlimited time. It consists in emitting painless electrical pulses around the nerves or muscles, through electrodes placed on the skin and connected to an easy-to-use generator or stimulator.